


Arise

by bree_niah



Category: K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Angst, Black Character(s), Broken Family, Dual Blade Wielding Badass, Emotional Constipation, Emotional Past Trauma, Exes to Lovers, F/M, Fallen Angels, Familial Love, Female Character of Color, Fluff, Gang, Heir to throne of Hell, Hell, Hell Fire to the Face, Hellfire, Maia wants to stab her father, Rage, Romantic Fluff, Sexual Tension, Smut, Soft Min Yoongi | Suga, Sparring, Spawn of Satan, Training, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Violence, mention of drugs, murder???, sEX???, spawn of lucifer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 84,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23059117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bree_niah/pseuds/bree_niah
Summary: An incident that left her shattered – physically and emotionally – pushed Maia away from her life as a devoted fallen. But years later all she escaped catches up with her and she can't find it in herself to stay away any longer. Her loyalty to the cause itself hasn’t wavered, she just needs to work through dealing with those she pushed away; including her ex-boyfriend, Yoongi.
Relationships: Min Yoongi | Suga/Black Character, Min Yoongi | Suga/Female Character of Color, Min Yoongi | Suga/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Maia went from mildly excited to wanting to escape the moment they parked the car outside the warehouse. It wasn’t the music or the people loitering outside getting high and all but fucking against the building, but the energy surrounding the place. It annoyed her, but she couldn’t say that it wasn’t expected. So, instead of abandoning the twins there she got out of the car and walked towards the structure.

“You look like you want to flee, Mai,” Erica said.

There was no point in denying it, so she just shrugged and continued following behind them in silence. She’d entered a sort of autopilot as her mind drifted elsewhere, so she didn’t notice when they’d both stopped just shy of the door.

“What?” she asked.

They both turned around, staring at her intensely in a way that gave off creepy twin vibes.

“If you want to go home, you can,” Erica said.

Alex nodded. “Yeah, we get this is your least favorite way to party. And as your best friends and siblings it would be rude of us to not consider your feelings. No matter how much we wanted a night out with you.”

Maia watched them closely, noting they both had to stop themselves from giggling when Alex emphasized their status in her life.

“Step-siblings. Don’t want people thinking you also share such a tainted parent as me,” was all she said before moving past them and towards the door.

She could hear their mumbling behind her about it being a technicality and couldn’t stop the smirk that graced her lips. They all hated when someone expressed the step part but did it to bother each other anyway. Their worry was appreciated, but she was a big girl and could handle the bullshit she knew was on the other side of the door.

Once inside she felt calm and almost enjoyed the moment. There was still that off-putting vibe, but it couldn’t trump the energy that came off all the people enjoying themselves. It almost made her drift into the middle of the dance floor, but Alex put his hand on her arm and guided her towards the opposite side of the warehouse where people were chilling.

Maia wanted to question him, but it took only a second to see where they were headed. Or more so who they were headed towards.

“Alex! Erica! My dudes, we’ve been waiting for you guys,” a man said, stumbling forward to greet both of them.

Erica opened her mouth to respond, but by then his attention turned to Maia. “And you brought a friend. Welcome dude!”

Maia nodded and muttered a hello, but then noticed his outstretched hand. Not wanting to be rude she took it but regretted it the second they touched. When their hands parted hers was covered in what she hoped was sweat, but she couldn’t be sure of that. So, when Alex wasn’t looking, she slyly used his shirt to wipe off the hand, though she was caught just as she went to pull away. While he glared at her she offered a smile and a shrug.

The way his lips twitched she was sure he was going to give her an earful about ruining his shirt, but then his attention was pulled elsewhere. And with neither of the twins focusing on her Maia found a seat on a mostly empty, rundown couch they had. It wasn’t that comfy, but also not the worst thing in the world to sit on.

To the people around her she probably appeared shy or lonely, but she was more than fine just sitting and watching everyone. Plus, she didn’t really want to socialize with them. Partying wasn’t her thing most of the time, but what was more so not her thing was making “friends” or getting too close to people in the setting she was in. Especially not people who were part of the little “gang” that the twins had joined a few years back. None of them struck fear into her, but she wasn’t in the mood for people who thought they were hot shit just because they’d done something illegal and never got caught.  
Maia sat and scanned the area, watching people do their thing and enjoying themselves. It wasn’t too bad, though every now and then she felt something shift inside her and could swear she saw someone she knew amongst the throngs of people. She got so caught up in it that she didn’t notice Erica in front of her until a shot glass was shoved towards her mouth.

Eyes wide she looked up at her, but the woman said nothing and continued to hold out the drink. Rolling her eyes Maia took it and chugged it, doing the same to the next few she handed her. The twins always tried to feed her as many drinks as they could, which was always much more than they would consume. Forever trying to get her at least tipsy since they said it always took her too long because of her high tolerance.

After downing her ninth shot she slapped Erica’s hand when she went to grab another. “That’s the last one. I’m not drinking the whole bar just because it takes you six shots to start feeling a buzz.”

Erica pouted, but nodded and finished it off on her own. She was clearly feeling something while Maia was left with only the taste of the alcohol she’d consumed. It’s when she realized she needed to go off and do something, sitting meant more drinks and she didn’t want to deal with Erica getting frustrated when it was clear that she wasn’t well on her way to being drunk.

Standing abruptly, she caught the attention of everyone around them, but brushed it off. Turning to Erica she shouted, “I’m going to go dance or something.”

And with a thumbs up in response she was off. As she created distance between herself and the twins, she felt that same pull to the energy being created on the dance floor as before. It roped her in and soon she found herself in the center of it all meshing with those around her. It took a bit, but her body found its rhythm and she moved with the music.

But her dancing didn’t stop her eyes from taking in her surroundings, though not necessarily for the same reasons as before. She suddenly had a purpose; she knew exactly what she wanted to see. Her gaze flitted everywhere, taking in the people practically naked and fucking against the wall, those in the corners and amongst the crowd popping pills and getting high, and the people humping each other in the middle of the floor. 

The energy was off the charts and she felt submerged in it.

At that moment Maia let go and truly felt herself enjoying everything; she was relaxed and moved easily with the beat. There was no trying to figure out the moves and she could just let the music and the energy fuel her. Excitement and longing for more of it coursed through her body. It had been so long since she’d felt something like that; at least so intensely.

It even brought her to the point that she didn’t mind the people moving into her space. As her eyes fluttered shut, she pressed against the person behind her, their bodies fusing as one as they moved along with her.

Who knows how long she stayed like that, but she didn’t come back down to earth until there was a tap on her shoulder. Her eyes opened and she saw Erica standing in front of her with a smile on her face.

“We’re going outside. There’s something we need to handle. If you need us call or text us. And if we don’t answer just tell the bartender to come get us from back there,” she shouted, her hand pointing to the door near the bar.

Maia nodded, making note of that before slowly immersing herself back into her previous state. Despite that she couldn't help, but my notice Erica being led away by a male who appeared oddly familiar to her before her eyes closed. But she brushed it off because he was probably just a member of their gang. At least that’s what part of her said, the smart part of her wanted her to snap out of it and figure out why he felt intensely familiar.

But she was wrapped up in feeling overwhelmingly good that it was hard to pull it together and before she knew it her mind was drifting again. Ciara’s Goodies started playing and it was one of her favorite songs ever. It lifted her mood in almost any situation and it only made her even better when she was already feeling great.

Once again she was lost to the world. 

That was until she felt someone tug on her box braids. At first, she ignored it, but he kept running his fingers through them and at one point yanked them hard enough that it hurt her scalp to the point where the pain lingered for a bit. Her movements stopped and she turned around to look at the guy who’d been pressing his semi-hard on against her.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

At first, he appeared confused, but then when it clicked, he just laughed and leaned in so he didn’t have to scream to be heard.

“Oh, I just wanted to feel your hair. It’s cute and I couldn’t help myself.”

The way he said it was as if he just strolled up to anybody and touched their hair as he damn well pleased. And as if her clear displeasure was all for not. Without a thought she pulled away and smiled, her eyes staring directly into his. It took a second, but his smile dropped, expression blank, and her own hand reached up to yank his short, bleached, straw-like hair. 

“Do you enjoy me feeling on your hair?” she asked.

His expression remained blank and then when he did shake his head no there was fear in his eyes. Releasing it she shooed him away and there was a flare of anger in his expression, but it disappeared in an instant and he was gone.

Maia calmed herself, not letting idiots ruin her overall mood. She even moved to a different part of the floor, but then she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Well, someone. But by the time she turned to look he was gone, though not really. She could tell he was still around.

Taking a breath, she slowly turned and stopped in the exact spot she knew he was. When her eyes landed on him it was his hands, she saw gripping the hips of some girl who could not twerk to save her life. It took a second, but then his gray hair was peeking out from over the girl’s head. And finally, the girl went down low she could see his face. He was paying the girl in front of him no attention, his eyes focused solely on Maia. There was a smirk playing on his lips. 

He was a cocky little shit and despite how she hated it, Maia couldn’t help the twinge in her heart. The small amount of joy that filled her. And she also hated that he could read her well. It was clear he noticed the change in her because that smirk shifted into the gummy smile that she couldn’t help but return.

Another deep breath and she was turning to her left where the bar was, leaving him behind. It wasn’t even about not wanting to see him, but also about no longer wanting to be in a place where someone like him would be needed. She knew the twins were in some deep shit, but never did she think it was that deep.

When she reached the door behind the bar where she knew they’d be the bartender tried to stop her, but she breezed right past him. It brought her to the back of the warehouse where people were loitering. There was a guy to her left getting a hand job and some others scattered about getting high, but her focus was the group a little farther away that everyone appeared to be avoiding.

Without a thought she stormed over there, becoming privy to what they were talking about as she grew closer.

“Why can’t we keep to the plan? We were supposed to do it next week, speeding up the timeline may fuck us in the end,” someone asked.

“Because she wants it done this week and we can’t screw it up. We have some major making up to do because of last month’s raid messing things up. Plus, she’ll be here to watch over us much closer this time. No excuses, no complaining, we just have to do it,” Erica said.

Before the guy could respond someone noticed Maia coming towards them and stood up, leaving their little circle to move towards her.

“Get out of here. This is a private conversa…”

Maia didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence, pushing past him and not stopping until she was at the edge of the circle. She stared at both Erica and Alex who looked at her with wide eyes.  
“We’re leaving now,” she said, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Everyone appeared speechless at this person brazenly interrupting their meeting, everyone except a man sitting to the left of Erica who just appeared annoyed.

A hand reached out and gripped her wrist tightly and yanked her back. “I said get out of here.”

Twirling around Maia stared him down, not at all afraid of him even as he tried to put on his most intimidating expression. His grip on her wrist tightened and it took all of her to not snatch it free and break his.

“Seth, call off your fucking dog,” Maia said.

There was a sigh after that and then a clap of the hands. The idiot’s gaze moved to look behind her and he released her but remained all up in her space.

“She needs to go this isn’t her business,” he said.

“More of my fucking business then it will ever be yours,” Maia replied.

At that moment she dropped the facade, ridding herself of the glamour she keeps up to ensure that she doesn’t run into trouble or have to deal with annoying people trying to please her. Maia feels as her power stops lying dormant within and as she feels the fire in her veins. For effect she even allows her eyes to shift for a moment, darkness and fire reflected in them.

The man who thought he could step to her scrambles back and she turns to face the group. Most of them have moved away, minus Seth and the very confused twins. 

“We’re leaving. Now.”

The twins are barely standing before a voice rings out, making everyone freeze. Including Maia. “But why, Maia? I haven’t seen you in so long and now you’re here. Maybe fate has brought us together again.”

There isn’t a need to turn to see who it is, because Maia knows from the voice and before she knows it, she’s in front of her. 

Lilith doesn’t look any different from when Maia saw her last almost four years before. Long brown hair smile that seems too sweet, and gentle, cool aunt vibe. She even wears all white, which she’ll claim is because it’s the best match for her skin tone. Will go on forever about how every Afro-Columbian looks brilliant in white. Which means she does too because that where she’d be born if she hadn’t been created so early in time. But it’s clear it’s to continue her facade. To make people see her as innocent.

Maia scoffed. “Fate my ass.”

A faux frown graces Lilith’s lips. “Oh, come on darling. I understand your anger, but you don’t have to be like that with me.”

“Oh, I don’t? Please tell me why I don’t?”

There was a glint of regret in Lilith’s eyes and then she released a long sigh. “I couldn’t stop it. You and I both know how hard it can be to change his mind most of the time. And he wasn’t necessarily wrong, the risk wasn’t that great and it was a simple situation. There was no real…”

“I need you to understand that I don’t care, Lilith. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to talk to you. I would take Him over you at this point.”

Lilith sighs and rolls her eyes, probably over Maia’s dramatics. But she didn’t try to say anything else and after a second Maia knew why. 

He was lurking in the shadows and remained hidden the entire time, but finally joined everyone. If Maia’s presence sent people moving away, his sent everyone falling over themselves to get even farther away from them.

Maia didn’t even turn to look at him, but she could see him from the corner of her eye. He was wearing the skin of some short, white man with a permanent frown on his face. When he finally appeared in front of her he’d shifted into a taller white man, but the frowning was still a prominent theme.

“You just don’t know how to quit do you?” Maia asked.

“Not when it comes to my daughter I don’t.”

That made Maia laugh; full body, need to bend over to catch your breath laugh. It wasn’t actually funny, but she couldn’t help it. But when all the laughing came to an end the rage kicked in. Flames flitted across her skin and her eyes went black, it was all consuming. And before anyone could interfere her arm extended and a stream of flames was hitting him center mass. 

He didn’t flinch at all, just took it.

“Don’t tell lies. And I don’t want to see you, Lucifer. I’m sure I made that very, very clear.”

In a feat that didn’t seem possible the frown on his face deepened and he was glaring at her. Maia knew what displeased him too, she’d done it on purpose. Because of all the things that Lucifer could tolerate, he despised his child calling him by his actual name. It worked his last nerve and she wanted to do that.

When he couldn’t find a response and continued his look of displeasure, she thought to wipe it off. Raising her hand and the blast centered to his face, slamming into it. That brought him to his knees, a pained noise escaping his lips. Hellfire was something he was immune to, but it didn’t mean the skins he wore were. Especially not when you aimed for the head.

Maia would’ve stayed like that too, but Lilith begged her to stop so she did. Even she knew that there was a line and she couldn’t keep going; plus, she remembered the twins. Her gaze flitted to them momentarily to see she hadn’t scared them too much, which was good.

But she didn’t linger on them too long, she wanted the interaction over. “If just now was not clear, I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, Lucifer. I don’t feel like dealing with your fake care. I’m not going to keep playing this game as your pawn. You won’t admit it, but that’s all I am and I’m tired of it.”

That should’ve been where she walked away. Where she grabbed the twins and left them all there, but for some reason she lingered. She watched him recover and shift into a new skin, this one of a man that could be her twin. Brown skin, piercing, dark brown eyes that were almost black, and coily hair, though his was much shorter than hers in its natural state. It made her feel like he was trying to play on her feelings.

Once fully recovered he released a frustrated growl. “I care! And you are not a pawn. Maia Lucille, you will not tell me how I feel in relation to my child.”

Another unamused laugh escaped her, but it wasn’t as intense. “Oh really? You say care? Want a cookie for doing the bare minimum? For simply stating what you feel and not having actually done anything to back it up? Someone who cared would’ve never let what happened happen. Someone who cared wouldn’t have reacted the way you did after. Someone who fucking cared wouldn’t be here right now, disrupting my life when it’s finally settled.”

At some point she went from several feet apart to inches. Her finger dug into his chest, her head tilted up as that form was one that put him at almost his full height. 

Lucifer just stared down at her, regret marring his features until they moved into a blank stare. He was clearly trying to keep it together, at least it was obvious to her. A soft exhale escaped him after a minute of their stare down and he looked away and then back to her.

“You can be angry with me all you want, but you have a duty. You chose a path and you swore to stick to it. So, regardless of you wanting to see me or not you have to. Unless your allegiance has changed?”

Maia was ready to argue, but she couldn’t and she hated it. Despite her feelings towards a set of people she missed what she used to do and she had made an allegiance that she wasn’t questioning at all. That was one thing in her life that she was beyond sure of no matter what happened. But she’d needed space and taken years of it.

She really wanted to say fuck logic, but she couldn’t.

Without a word she pushed past him and moved to the twins, grabbing their hands and leading them away. She wanted to get the hell away from them as soon as she could so she could breathe and decompress. 

When she got a fair distance away, without pausing, she shouted, “Tomorrow.”


	2. Chapter 2

“So, you’ve just been walking around being a demon and not telling us?” Erica asked.

Maia groaned; she was really regretting answering her phone on her morning jog. She knew better, but they’d been calling so much.

“I’m not a demon. I am a fallen angel. Part fallen angel actually. Well, actually more so half-angel since I didn’t fall,” Maia replied, clearly annoyed.

Erica scoffed. “Sorry, for using the derogatory word for fallen then.”

“Not derogatory, completely different thing. Angels who fall are not demons. Demons are their own species and don’t roam as freely as I can, they put off too much of an energy beacon. Angels could track them in a second. Also, how do you work for a gang where you know fallen exist and not know that?”

There was some grumbling about them not learning much and something about only recently learning about angels and fallen being real. Maia hoped it was enough to get them to stop trying to interrogate her, but that was proven false.

“This is just so wild. You’re literally a child of Satan. We’ve gone to church with you! How do you not combust in there?” Alex asked, excitement coloring his voice.

“No one catches on fire. It just hurts like hell,” she said.

“Ha ‘like hell’. What is hell li…”

As Alex was asking the question Maia reached the end of the trail and stopped her run. In the distance sat her favorite diner and in front of said diner stood her father. She’d agreed to meet him there but hoped that he’d arrive after she did. A few moments to pull herself together were needed, but she wasn’t going to get that so she stood and stared at him.

Lucifer didn’t look at her, but she knew he was aware of her presence. It was in the way his body language shifted into something more relaxed. He appeared less on guard than he had in the first few seconds.

Why he felt at ease when she’d blasted him in the face less than twelve hours before she didn’t know.

Maia was so far in her own head that she’d tuned out the twins talking. “Hello? Hello, Maia? Are you there?”

Clearing her throat, she nodded, as if they could see her. “Yeah. Sorry, I have to go now. Just got to the diner.”

“Oh, okay. Hope you have a decent conversation,” Alex said.

“And don’t attack him with fire in public please!” Erica shouted just as she went to hang up.

Maia laughed. “I won’t. Later.”

With that she pushed the headphones down, so they rested on her neck, and walked down the stairs towards the diner. As she took each step, she reminded herself not to do anything brash and keep levelheaded. It wasn’t a place she could just act on emotion at and she also knew that it was a conversation that needed to be had.

And at least this time he wasn’t wearing a face that made her want to punch it. Lucifer’s chosen skin for their meeting with an Indian man who appeared around her age. He even dressed like one of those kids who rolled out of bed and went straight to class.

When she finally reached him, he smiled at her, one that wasn’t forced but genuine. Not that it really mattered to her. His smiles, no matter the truth behind them, no longer swayed her feelings one way or another. That was something she had to learn after so long of relying heavily on the joy of her parents to fuel her own; especially his.

“Did you have a nice run?” he asked.

Maia shrugged. “It was fine. I started out later than I wanted, but I made up for it.”

He nodded and after several seconds of staring at each other he turned and entered the diner. Maia followed suit, only moving to take the lead once they made it to the host’s podium. The man behind it recognized her immediately and led them to a booth that was off towards a back area with almost no traffic. They also had the luck of no one seated around them.

After taking their drink orders they were left alone with menus and tense silence. Maia made no move to speak, just perused the menu as if she didn’t already know what she wanted to order. And from what she could see her father wasn’t even looking over his, just staring at it.

They remained that way until a waitress came over and set down two mugs of green tea and left to give them more time to order. That’s when he finally found his voice.

“So, how’s school? This is your final year, right? Enrolled in that slightly condensed international business program you always raved about?”

Maia laughed, still not looking up from the menu. “School is fine. But let’s not act like you don’t know the answers to your questions. Your lackies stalk me from the shadows way too much for you to try and play at oblivious.”

He didn’t even try to deny it and when Maia finally looked up, he was smirking and drinking his tea. “Thought I’d trained them better than that.”

“Ha, I’m sure you did.”

They just stared at each other after that. No anger. No malice. Just mild amusement as they thought of the shortcomings of the fallen he placed on her tail. After minutes Lucifer was the first to look away, but it was only so the waitress no longer had to stand there and watch them be weird. They both ordered and again she was gone, leaving them to continue speaking to each other.

Maia didn’t hate it as much as she thought she would but refused to say that aloud.

“How’s your mother?” was his next question.

“She’s fine. Going to work, forgetting the devil who entrapped her for twenty years of marriage and moving on with her new preacher husband. I believe they're planning to cleanse my soul of all the evil taint you may have left behind or something like that. The woman really hates you.” Maia said with a straight face.

Lucifer’s eyes went from wide to narrowed in seconds. That’s all it took for him to realize she was messing with him. Well that and the fact that she was struggling to maintain her expression.

“Haha.”

Maia just shrugged, taking a long sip from her mug and smirking.

“I wasn’t lying about most of that. She does hate you, is still struggling a little with the hate she feels and does have a new preacher husband.”

Lucifer nodded. “I guess I laid the hate on a little too thick.”

“Ya think?”

Again silence, but that time Maia wasn’t just being quiet for the sake of being quiet; her mind drifted elsewhere. The mention of her mother always brought fondness, but when it came to discussing her with Lucifer a different feeling emerged.

Guilt.

It twisted her insides and made her rethink some things. Not for taking the path of Satan and allowing her soul to be “tainted,” but for having to watch her live in a world where she thought the worst of her ex-husband. It wasn’t like she was wrong, but she’d never known that side of him. Influence over her is what made her hate him so much and it warped her view in a way that destroyed her for a while. And while Maia knew it was necessary for Lucifer to have a clean break from her, she still hated it. Especially when her mind brought her back to the moments where her mother thought she’d spent all her years not truly loved.

Lucifer may not have felt romantic love for her, but he cared for her deeply and did love her platonically. It was just time for them to part.

A gentle touch on the hand brought her back and her eyes landed on her father. He was giving her a soft, apologetic smile. One she knew he meant, because despite her feelings for him she knew that he’d never do something like that to someone important to him. It just wasn’t in him or so she liked to think when it came to her mother.

Which made her anger with him conflicting, but she didn’t have time to linger on that at that moment. She was there for something different.

Before she could move the conversation along their waitress was back with food, and though she could ignore it to talk hunger took over. One glance at her food - which was bacon, eggs, half a Belgian waffle, and grits - was all it took for her to be swayed. Lucifer also wasted no time in digging into his pancakes and sausage.

They both ate in silence, enjoying their food. It was nice, which Maia hated to admit. Her rage sat just below the surface and yet fondness managed to work its way in. Memories of how they would go out once a week by themselves to just explore and eat everything that caught their eye filled her head. How they’d do it twice a week if he could convince her mother to let her miss church with him. She looked forward to them so much and even she couldn’t deny she missed it. Her emotions sadly didn’t drown out her logic, which refused to allow her to ignore that she felt more than anger.

When they finished almost at the same time, they flagged down the waitress to order something else. The exact same thing actually. A cheeseburger and fries, with more fries on the side and more pickles because you could never have enough of either. Maia found herself looking away from him when they both finished relaying that to the waitress.

That time he didn’t wait to jump into things, he just started. He stared at Maia with a serious expression, which showed her he was done with small talk.

“Things have gotten a bit more strained; we’re taking more angel attacks and they’ve ramped up their attempts to influence humans. It has not stopped our advancements, but it shows that He is getting a lot more impatient. Since you abandoned your training and your duties, myself and others have had to take extra efforts to keep our leadership together. Though your reasons are noted, this is not a time where waiting for our spat to be over can be a perfect solution. There are things you've agreed to that cannot just be put off. So, you have the option to continue on with your preparation or we can find another person to fill the place you’ve left vacant.”

Maia waved her hand in dismissal. “I'll continue. Like you said, I made a choice. No, I made an allegiance and I will honor that. Even while you and I may not be… on the best of terms.”

Again, plates were placed in front of them and they dug into the food, but that didn’t stop their conversation.

“Good. Now as before you won't be handed anything. You have the upper leg because I am grooming you for my place, but that does not mean you won't be giving your all to this. I don't expect you to give up the life you've formed completely, but I won't expect anything accept complete dedication. You need to be prepared for your ritual. So, you will be working with Lilith…”

Maia threw her head back and groaned, but Lucifer kept going. “...and Yoongi.”

That gaze her pause and she looked at her father who was chewing his food and giving her a blank expression. Obviously, he wasn’t going to pay much attention to her little tantrum; even if he knew why she felt that way.

When she nodded in agreement he continued.

“You will train to ensure you are where you need to be. You will work under her to learn what she is doing to expand our reach and so you can one day do it. You will not undermine her. You will not put up a fight on things that need to be done. Unless, and this is a big unless, you feel that it can be done better. And even then, you will try your best to do it without being a total sarcastic ass. Your goal is to learn, train, and prepare for the next steps in your life. For when you are to take on bigger things. You will do it with the same focus as you have before. Understood?”

Again, she nodded, but she couldn’t help herself. “Yoongi? Do I have to? Why not Seth? Or Hoseok? Hobi’s a great option.”

And like the ever-caring father he rolled his eyes at her. “No, it’s going to be Yoongi. You work best with him. You push yourself and he pushes you well. Plus, I trust him to not be afraid to come at you with all he has or try to prove that he’s better than my heir. Besides you can ignore him when you don’t have to work with him. Or get back together with him. Either works for me.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes. Though he tried to keep everything about him indifferent Maia could see the smirk he was fighting to keep down. Even when he knew why she was avoiding Yoongi he still couldn’t help but laugh at her relationship troubles.

Lucifer was an asshole.

“Could you stop trying to pimp me out for just a second, father? Remember how it ended with that last guy? Oh wait, he's the same one we're talking about.”

With that she finished her food and stood from her seat making her exit after barely waving bye to him. And even as she put distance between them, even as she reached across the parking lot and back up to the trail, she could hear him laughing.

A true asshole.


	3. Chapter 3

“Remember that I won’t be here next week so don’t show up. You’ll be met with disappointment and anger because you could’ve been partying or whatever you do on a Friday night,” Dr. Matthews said.

The moment he said those words everyone was out of seats and the room. Maia lingered behind and reminded herself to not show up for that next class, but focusing was hard. Her mind drifted from one thought to another; neither of them things she’d wanted to linger on.

One part of her brain processed that she'd surely blown the quiz that week. The other part couldn't stop dreading the meeting with Lilith she was to have. Just before her class a text came through saying that the twins would be taking her with them somewhere and that her presence was non-negotiable. It stuck with her the whole class, her main focus figuring out how she could get out of it. And it was the reason why the possible quiz fail was even a problem in the first place.

It reached a point that the whole process of leaving the building and getting to the twins’ car was done on autopilot. They tried to pull her out of it, but she was only vaguely aware of their presence. At some point they gave up and just ushered her into the back seat.

“You know it won’t be that bad,” Alex said.

That brought her back and she released the loudest sigh possible. Blinking a few times, she looked towards the front seats where both twins sat looking back at her.

“I know. I’m used to these things, but it’s been so long and…” Maia stopped there, sighing again.

“And you’re still pissed at Lilith and want to avoid her with every fiber of your being?” Erica said.

Maia groaned. “Yes.”

The twins rolled their eyes and Alex reached back to ruffle Maia’s hair, which was straightened because of a haircut a few days prior. “It’ll be fine. You’ve handled all of this with surprising restraint. We’ve seen you angry and even though that night at the rave was terrifying, you didn’t seem at max level pissed. You got this.”

Maia knew they were right because she’d handled worse situations, but a lot of her just wanted to be stubborn. And there was that lingering hurt beneath the anger. She wasn’t an idiot and knew that her not wanting to see Lilith had more to do with that than anger. Facing someone who hurt you was always harder than facing someone you simply were angered by or hated.

It was also part of the reason why seeing Yoongi was hard. Well, that and something else that she refused to acknowledge fully. Even as her mind drifted towards it, she fought it off because she didn’t want to deal with it.

Taking a deep breath, she focused on the twins and nodded, giving them a thumbs up. With that they turned around and Erica pulled out of the parking lot.

Maia mostly focused on her phone as they talked amongst themselves. She was trying to complete a level of Candy Crush that she’d failed the night before, but it was still kicking her behind. It was on her last life that the conversation became one of “interest.”

“Is Yoon going to be there? I need to return the books he lent me,” Erica asked.

Alex shrugged. “Uh, maybe. He said something about being needed for the meeting today or something like that. Why they’d need him I don’t know. Doesn’t he usually come in like once a month or something? Usually off somewhere doing something more important.”

Maia jolted forward. “Yoon? Like Yoongi?”

Alex turned to look at Maia with brows raised and confusion etched into his face. “Yeah, dude who’s like 5'9, but gives off 6'9 with ‘roid rage energy.”

At that moment Maia felt like an idiot, because of course he’d be there. She had thrown the idea that he’d be in attendance out the window because they almost always had him doing a million things, but it made sense that they’d keep him close by. Her father made it clear that she would be working closely with him and she’d hoped it only meant when training was involved.

She really, really hated being wrong.

“Fuck,” was all she could say.

Alex kept looking at her confused and when they reached a red-light Erica was too. But then it was like a lightbulb moment was happening and Erica was smiling way too hard for Maia’s liking.

“Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness! You’re the girl,” she shouted.

“Huh?” Alex asked and then he too had a moment of clarity. “That girl? Oh my… you’re that girl. Bruh.”

After that they both just glanced at each other and laughed, which made Maia throw her phone on the seat and groan. Of course. Of course, they had some knowledge of her. No one could keep their mouth shut, obviously. The freaking universe always worked against her in some way, shape, or form.

“No wonder he turns down people so often,” Erica mumbled.

Maia wanted to question her on it but decided to just sit in her fake agony for the rest of the ride. She was unsure of how much time passed, but they arrived at a warehouse in an empty lot before she knew it.

The urge to release all her negative energy via one long scream was strong, but instead she pushed it down and got out of the car. Lilith was at the door before she even got halfway. She was smiling at Maia as if they were just two friend’s meeting up.

“I’m so glad you could join us, Maia,” Lilith said when she reached the door.

There was no waiting for a response though, she just turned on her heel and walked into the warehouse. Maia followed close behind her, taking in the place that’s modern interior clashed with it’s rundown exterior. She would need to get acquainted with it quickly since she was going to be thrown into the deep end early on and it was base camp.

Since her focus was on taking in the place, she hadn’t taken the time to prepare herself for having to face Yoongi again, but, by the time she thought to, it was too late. Lilith led her into a room at the very back and there he sat amongst several other familiar faces.

What made it worse was that the only available seat, besides the one Lilith took at the head of the table, was next to him. Actually, it was between both of them and she didn’t think her day could get worse.

Without saying a word, she took the seat and turned her attention to Lilith, who was glancing around the table. She was probably making sure she had everyone’s attention, but Maia wished she’d just say something so she was less aware of Yoongi’s eyes.

But Maia wasn’t allowed nice things. She could feel his breath on her neck as he leaned in and it sent a chill down her spine.

“Nice of you to join us, Maia,” was all he said before moving away.

Taking a careful breath, she remained focused on Lilith who finally looked at her before turning to address the table.

“Well, today’s meeting is to get Maia acquainted with what we do and to make sure we’re all on the same page. As your father may have informed you, Mai this is your run of the mill organized crime syndicate. We’ve done them for millennia, so it’s not a radical idea by any means. But, I wanted to test out more centralized clusters. So, we dabble in providing humans with the things they need to create or expand on their sinful behavior, adding a little influence of our own from time to time. We throw the parties like the one you attended last Friday, deal drugs, ammunition, run whore houses, contribute to turf wars. Anything that could spread a form of chaos, we do, or try to. It's a small thing, but that's how I want it for the time being.

It’s one thing to do a full-on takeover of an area to raise chaos, and another to slowly take it over in a more uniform manner. We expand over time, moving from town to town until we have a hand in everything. It may not be something to turn the tide in our favor immediately, but it works for us.”

When Lilith finished, she turned to look at Maia as if awaiting something. Maia just stared back and mulled over everything. Nothing they planned was revolutionary or the key to getting what they want faster, but it wasn’t horrible. It was progress and that’s what the main mission would always be. Plus, a more organized version of criminal empires would be something kind of new and would help a great deal.

Maia nodded; lips pursed. “I like it. It creates some concrete movement while everything else is happening. It isn’t quick, but when has anything about this war been quick.”

Lilith smiled, clearly pleased with the response she’d been given. Which was always weird to Maia, because despite being in this war so much longer Lilith seemed to always take her approval to heart.

“Well, since we have the basics out of the way how about everyone talk about our current operations. You all have your parts to play,” Lilith said.

For a moment or two it was silent and then a hand went up. Hoseok, Yoongi’s best friend and a high ranking fallen, wanted to take the floor. Maia, and everyone else, gave him their attention and for the next few minutes he explained his current issue.

The parties they were throwing were going well, people loved them and showed up night after night but distributing drugs was the problem. People were more hesitant to try drugs from those who weren’t their dealers, so that meant dealers showed up to sell their own product. It also meant that hardly anyone was trying the newest strain that they’d come up with, which was more addictive. They needed a way to get them to at least try it.

“How about pumping it through the air?” Maia asked once he’d finished talking, garnering everyone’s attention. “I know it’s probably been a thought and that there will be some humans that it doesn’t work on, but it will work on a good chunk of them. Especially those who’ve used any other drug before. It gives them a taste of it. And then we get rid of every dealer before they can even enter the place. Not offing them, but not allowing them inside during it and render them incapable of selling before the party too. It’ll free up those who already have a connect and it’ll make those who get a taste and need more seek out our people. And of course, we’d find a way to guard the humans who work for us from ingesting it.”

Hoseok nodded along, but then a glint of uncertainty flashed in his eyes. “Would work, but we don’t want to put them out of business entirely. Regardless of us needing to push our own versions they help things along with getting people their supplies in the first place.”

Maia thought about it for a second and then started talking before anyone else could. “True. Wait. We need to become their suppliers. Somehow our stuff needs to get into their hands. Keep tabs on who shows up, get them our product to distribute. But we’d also need to ensure we know who likes to dilute their stuff. That way we know what level of strength to give them so it’s not like what they used to push before we connected with them. That would defeat the whole point.”

After that Hoseok smiled at her and it was as bright as ever. “Oh, how I’ve missed that beautiful brain of yours. Face too.”

That made Maia smile and Yoongi grumble, but that was nothing new. He always felt a way when Hoseok even looked like he was flirting despite knowing that he wasn’t nine times out of ten.

After that everyone at the table gave updates or posed questions for input. It worked flawlessly and Maia got comfortable quickly; it was like she hadn’t left at all.

When everything was said and done Maia felt lighter.

“If no one has anything else to put out there then we can clear out. I do need to speak to Maia and Yoongi in private though, so if you have anything to say to me privately please just wait around. It won’t be long,” Lilith said.

Everyone nodded and got up to leave. When Hoseok went by he squeezed Maia’s shoulder, which earned another grumble from Yoongi. It almost made Maia smile. Almost because once he was gone, she was alone in a room with two people she didn’t want to be.

Once alone, Lilith turned to look at both of them, a gentle smile on her lips. “I know you hate this, so I appreciate that you listened and contributed without a problem. I expect you to be on top of your game and to start no rifts in this organization. Everything is still fresh and even with the progress we have made we’re still settling in. Be angry with me, Avery, and your father all you want, but please keep that private. No repeats like what happened a few nights ago."

Maia nodded. “Mhm.”

Lilith continued. “And as you know you’ll be working closely with Yoongi. He’ll be the person making sure you know the ins and outs of this place; he's been helping with overseeing all the operations. So, listen and learn from him, and remember that you just agreed not to be explosive while working.”

Again, Maia nodded, taking a deep breath and refusing to open her mouth to speak out of fear she’d say something to go against her. She wanted to be on her best behavior, even if that meant being angry and uncomfortable most of the time.

With that Lilith rose from her seat and left the room. Maia got up immediately to follow so she could find the twins and go, but a hand on the wrist stopped her.

“Mai,” Yoongi said.

Maia winced and turned her head so she didn’t have to look at him. The way he said it was so gentle, almost pleading and she knew what he wanted. But Maia refused to deal with it. She couldn’t deal with it. Well, not yet at least.

“Please not now,” she muttered.

“Then when?” he asked, stepping closer.

“Soon.”

And with that she pulled her wrist free and sped out of the room trying her best not to look back at him.

With that she hoped he’d let her go, but when she pulled her wrist, he simply grabbed her hand instead. Maia tried to pull free again, but his grip tightened and he was pulling her back. That caused her stomach to churn a little, but she couldn’t find it in herself to yank herself free like she knew she could.

“Maia?”

She didn’t respond, just continue to stare at the door and wish that he’d let her leave. Yoongi wasn’t having it though, he intertwined their fingers and then maneuvered her so that she faced him. That didn’t stop her from avoiding his gaze, but even when she refused to look at his face, part of him was in view and that wasn’t any better.

After a minute of her dodging his attempts Yoongi used his free hand to grip her chin and force her to look into his eyes. In a second, she could see the pain and hurt in his eyes and she wanted so badly to do something about it, but she couldn’t. That wasn’t something she could find in herself to handle, she was still so angry about everything. But most of all she was terribly embarrassed and hadn’t figured out how to talk about it all. She needed more time.

But the more she stared into Yoongi’s eyes, the more she felt herself breaking down. Her brain hit her with memories, brief flashes of them smiling and of her in pain. It was overwhelming. Her breath became shaky and she felt like she was overheating in a way that shouldn’t have been possible.

“Yoongi, please,” she pleaded.

Yoongi released her hand and then both of his hands cupped her face, ensuring that she was truly focused on him. His eyes still held that pain, but they were softer.

“Mai. Lovie, talk to me. Please. I’ve never wanted to hurt you and you know I didn’t hurt you. Just let me help with this. Let me help heal the pain,” Yoongi said, his voice soft and genuine.

She wanted to respond, to give into him and she was going to until a knock on the door had them moving away from each other. It was like the universe was saving her from herself and she was thankful for that.

Looking away from him she collected herself and when she didn’t feel like blurting out everything going on in her head, she glanced up at him again. His frown had deepened since she’d pulled away, but she couldn’t allow that to deter her.

Clearing her throat, she averted her eyes and spoke softly, “Soon.”

And that time Maia didn’t leave room for him to respond. She just turned on her heel and all but sprinted out of the room, almost knocking over the person on the other side. Even when she put a fair bit of distance between them, she didn’t stop running, just moved faster until she was out of the building and at the twins' car. Her chest heaved and she clamped her eyes shut, she was trying hard to pull it together. To calm herself down and regain control of her emotions, but she knew she failed.

Maia knew they had to talk sooner or later and she was terrified.


	4. Chapter 4

Training wasn’t how Maia liked to spend her weekends; when she worked out on her own they were the days that she left for relaxation. But she was no longer doing it on her own and they were the only days that worked with her schedule. Because unlike her gym and kickboxing sessions training amongst fallen was a different ballgame. One that would kick her ass no matter how well she dominated.

It’s why she sat outside the warehouse designated for training sessions. She’d wanted to get it over with, but going inside was some great feat that she couldn’t accomplish. And that was fine for the first five minutes, but then thirty minutes went and she remained in her car and was close to being late.

As she gave herself one last pep talk her phone vibrated and when she glanced at it there was one lone message.

Unknown: Stop sitting in your car and get your ass in here. We need to get this done and we don’t have all damn day.

The number was unknown, but she knew that it was Yoongi. No one else would text her like that unless they wanted to be cussed out, but he didn’t have a problem with that. It annoyed her, but it also stirred that feeling in her she tried to ignore.

Worry.

Maia was worried that despite knowing that she was capable and keeping up with her workout regime she’d fall behind. That she’d go in there and have her ass handed to her over and over. That she’d show that she was clearly no longer up to par with where she needed to be. And though she didn’t care all that much about people talking behind her back, she didn’t want to give them another reason to do it. She knew her vanishing already had them talking shit whenever they could.

She sighed, prepared to throw the phone to the side and sit a little longer to get herself together. Before she could another message came through.

Unknown: Come on, Mai. It’ll be fine.

Despite tone being hard to gauge via text she knew he was trying to comfort her. Hell, she could practically hear the softness in his voice. That annoyed her even more.

“Fuck,” she said.

Groaning, she flipped down her visor and checked her hair. She’d braided it into a bun to avoid anyone grabbing at it as much. It looked fine and would surely be a mess by the time her session ended, but she couldn’t stop herself from double-checking it was decent. Once done, she grabbed her bag and got out of the car.

Each step was over thought and much slower than it should’ve been, but she’d get inside at whatever pace it took. At least while she was outside and alone, she was allowed to show that she clearly wasn’t sure if she wanted to be there or not. Inside was a different environment, despite walls being the only thing separating the spaces.

Maia pulled the door open without breaking her stride and she felt her expression morph to a much more neutral one. It didn’t matter much though, because when she entered no one was paying her any attention. Everyone was either in the midst of a spar or they were in a circle being talked to by a fallen or demon. Well, more like lectured into a death like boredom.

That was something she hadn’t missed.

With everyone’s attention elsewhere she found an empty bench and dropped her bag there. Opening it up she did last minute preparations. That meant adding another hair tie to ensure her bun was truly secured, removing her nose piercing, downing some water, and ridding herself of the jacket she wore on top of her legging and cropped sports bra.

As she shoved everything except the water bottle into the bag, she felt eyes on her. Huffing she finished closing it up and took another swig of her water.

“These leggings were not an invitation for you to stare at my ass,” she said without turning around.

There was a scoff, but she could still feel his eyes on her. Even when she turned to face him, he still stared at her lower half.

After a few seconds Yoongi looked at her face and smirked. “You can’t expect that of me. Not with an ass like that in leggings like that.”

It took all of Maia to not roll her eyes into the back of her head, but somehow, she maintained. Though if she were honest it was even harder to not crack a smile at what he’d said. But she wasn’t honest.

“Did you want to stare longer or are we going to get started?”

Yoongi was already moving to the side to get a better view, lower lip between his teeth. He muttered a yes, but didn’t seem to be truly paying attention to what she said. It took clapping her hands in front of his face to get his attention.

Shaking his head and blinking a few times he seemed to get it together. “Uh yeah, we need to get started. Sama’el is in charge for the first half, so you can go to him.”

Maia nodded and walked past him towards where she saw the demon standing. She’d tried to put distance between them quickly, but it wasn’t quick enough because she still heard him mumble about being able to look at her ass while she sparred anyway.

That time the eye roll was impossible to suppress. Though she only fed into his staring by swaying her hips a little more than usual as she walked. He was being a perv, but she didn’t mind his focus on her lower half.

Once by Sama’el’s side Maia couldn’t even utter a greeting before he was giving her orders. “You’re going to work your way through skill levels today. Once you show me that you can get through one successfully, we’ll move to the next one. You warmed up before coming here correct?”

Maia nodded.

“Okay, you’re going to fight the winner of this round.” And with that he was walking away from her and focused solely on the two sparring on the mat.

That sort of interaction would bother most, but it was Sama’el and he was a demon. The first demon, so she never expected him to be anything except neutral and blunt. It was something she’d learned early on.

With that “conversation” out of the way her focus moved to those on and off the mat, and to say she hated what she saw was an understatement. Nothing was wrong with any of the fallen and she had no beef with a single person there, in fact she didn’t know anyone there. And that was the problem. If she recognized none of them, that meant they were new and that meant they were lower level.

They were truly forcing her to start from the bottom and work her way up.

Was she offended? Yes, but she pushed that aside. Even when she finally got onto the mat and put that fallen newbie on his behind in thirty seconds. And especially when she was forced to do it four more times because apparently, she wasn’t going hard enough on him for Sama’el’s taste. The poor kid would be bruised and limping if she went full force, but she wanted it over and did it like she was told.

And that’s what she did every time she switched skill levels. Not wanting to repeat things unnecessarily she came at people hard. There was no stopping her when she became determined to get someone down and make them stay down. Even when she felt her body tiring out, she pushed forward and surprised herself with the way she was able to take down some of the people.

Of course, her drive didn’t mean she didn’t take several punches nor did it mean that she wasn’t pinned down. Each opponent was stronger than the last and that meant she couldn’t just lean on knowing they weren’t at the same level as her. It tested her body in a way that it hadn’t been tested in a while and it was exhilarating. Having someone match her and present a challenge forced her to become more aware of their weaknesses. To be more aware of her own body and how she could move it.

By the time she finished with the last fallen she was exhausted and surprised, but happy. Maia assumed she’d take days before being able to get through the fallen in upper skill levels alone, so getting through all of them and not craving the sweet release of death was great.

She wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

“You did better than I anticipated. I’m pleased to see that you kept up with your workouts and training. You won’t be moved on now, that’ll wait a few more sessions. I want you to do one more spar and then you’re free to go,” Sama’el said.

With that he left Maia on the floor where she was attempting to catch her breath and avoiding looking at the face of the last guy she fought. He wouldn’t go down so she’d elbowed him in the face repeatedly and there was so much blood.

When everything was finally cleaned up and the mat clear Maia stood and turned to face those milling around. She hadn’t been assigned anyone so she took that as a sign that it was her choice, but choosing from them wouldn’t be fun so her eyes drifted past them. Yoongi stood at the very back of the crowd and looked mildly shocked when she stared him down and beckoned him forward. Hell, she surprised herself.

“Me?” he asked as he made his way through the crowd.

“Yes, you. You’re supposedly the best and I’m supposed to learn from the best, aren’t I?” she asked, a cocky smirk gracing her lips.

That made Yoongi roll his eyes and take a few steps back off the mat. Maia thought he was backing down, until he shed the hoodie he’d been wearing as well as his beanie. When he stepped back in his expression went from amused to blank. That was all Maia needed to know that he was more than ready.

“Rules?” Maia asked.

Yoongi pursed his lips for a moment and then nodded. “We’re done when someone starts to lose consciousness and no face hits. At least not serious injury ones.”

Maia nodded. “Cool. So…”

Without a word Yoongi sprinted towards her, but she didn’t move at all, not even a flinch of surprise. Yoongi wasn’t such an obvious attacker, rarely did he start by charging first. She knew better. He was clearly just trying to see how she would react to him, which was proven when he stopped feet from her.

“That’s how we’re starting this off?” she asked.

Yoongi shrugged. “I had to try.”

And that’s when he really came at her, his fist swinging out to hit her. Maia dodged him and sent her own fist into his stomach, but she didn’t feel good about it. Things felt too easy, like he wasn’t giving his all. But she went along with it anyway, and for a while it was just landing punches where they could and dodging what came at them. It grew boring for her quickly.

When the opening came Maia got behind him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and put him in a headlock. He tried to get free, but again it felt like he wasn’t really trying.

“Either you actually come at me or we stop,” she growled.

Thankfully, that’s all it took because suddenly Yoongi was bending over and she was sailing through the air onto her back. Maia tried to maintain her hold on his neck, but her arms loosened and he got free.

There was no time to think of a game plan for retaliation or catch her breath, she simply slammed her knee into his stomach the moment he hovered above her. It didn’t take him down, so she swiftly did it again and again until he had no choice but to drop to the ground. And goodness she couldn’t stop the smirk on her face when she saw the pain on his, but again there was no time to waste.

Maia scrambled to get away, not seeing a productive spar coming if she didn’t allow for a reset. Yoongi had other plans though. Before she could get to her feet her ankle was pulled back and she was on the ground again, though this time on her stomach. Then Yoongi sat on her, wrapping his arms around her neck, and pulling back. Her back was forced to bend in a way that no yoga pose could ever prepare you for.

The pain was dull, but the longer he held it the more it increased. Maia gritted her teeth and tried to get him off, but it only made him tighten the grip. Not even her swinging back elbows to ram into him was helping.

She refused to lose that early on.

With all the energy she could muster she sent them rolling to the side and used the momentum to get him under her. Yoongi kept hold of her neck, but she leaned forward and bit his arm hard enough to break the skin, but it didn’t have the desired effect. He just held tighter and before she could do anything else, she was stopped.

“Reset,” Sama’el called out.

Yoongi released her after that and she rolled off him. While he got up, she remained on the floor for a moment, kneeling and catching her breath. When she glanced at him, he was looking at her with a raised brow.

“Biting, really?”

Maia shrugged. “I know it’s your kink in all, so it would either get you too aroused to function or you’d hate the pain and loosen up.”

That didn’t amuse him in the least bit. His eyes narrowed and she heard what sounded like a low growl forming in his chest. Letting that displeasure of his come to head would be a terrible idea, so before he could react, she got into a crouch and tackled him to the ground.

There was little time between her body slammed into him and her knee connecting with his groin. She didn’t hit too hard, but hard enough that he groaned out in pain. After she was going to punch him in the face, but they’d agreed so she punched the mat a few times so he’d get the point.

It wasn’t long before he pushed her off him, but their legs were tangled so she simply readjusted and pulled him into a leg lock. The initial hold didn’t get a reaction, so she pulled hard and bent into a direction it shouldn’t go.

“Fuck,” Yoongi mumbled.

That pleased Maia, but her brain couldn’t figure out the next step. Which was the whole problem with the spar. She’d gotten through all the others without a struggle on what to do next, at least for the most part, but with him her brain wasn’t clicking. It was clear she was out of practice and not where she needed to be.

Huffing, she released his leg and said, “Reset.”

They did just that and it wasn’t the last time either. Three more times they reset because Maia wanted to or Sama’el said it. Whenever stuck in a position, especially if she had the upper hand, her brain couldn’t come up with the next action. She was close to losing it.

But then something inside her snapped.

Yoongi had her bent forward, kneeing into her stomach and laughing at her.

“You came at me like you were big and bad? What happened, Maia?” he teased.

In an instant she pressed closer to him, her arms moving to wrap around his waist. And then they were both falling backwards because she’d used their position to suplex him. There was a small sound of surprise that came out of him, but she paid it no mind. Nope, Maia gained the upper hand and maintained it. Several blows to the stomach, a knee to the balls, and then she grabbed onto his hair and slammed his head into the ground repeatedly.

Maia just kept coming and at some point, she became way too consumed because she was finally getting it right. It was so bad that she couldn’t explain how she ended up on her back with his hand around her throat.

The look in Yoongi’s eyes showed that he was in pain and pissed, but she could also see the pride in them. Even as he gained the upper hand and she couldn’t free herself he was proud of her. Even after she’d gone from deeply in love with him to pissed and hating every fiber of his being, he was still proud of her.

Her thoughts drifted from getting free and loss of air to when they’d last spoken. To when he’d pleaded with her to talk, but she’d ran away from him. Goodness, she couldn’t deal with it. With him. She needed to focus on something else.

Just as she thought that the black dots started to form and she felt her eyes flutter closed. In seconds he was off her and she struggled to find air.

“Maia. Lovie, breathe slowly. Follow my breathing.” She heard him say, though it sounded muffled as if she was underwater.

Regardless of that, Maia nodded and did her best to follow his breathing. It took a moment or two, but she was able to breathe without thinking about it and sit up by then. One of the other fallen brought her water bottle and Yoongi had her take a long, slow drink of it.

“You did good. I know you struggled, but you kept at it,” Yoongi said.

When Maia met his gaze, he still looked proud, but that time it was accompanied by that fucking smile that she couldn’t get out of her head if she wanted to. It made her smile back at him and things felt good.

Until Sama’el butted in. “You took him on better than I thought. A few more sessions to get through your mental block and you can move on. You’re done for the day. Min, you need to go and help out with those trainees. Observing you two was good, but they need some hands-on experience today.”

Yoongi nodded and then turned his attention back to Maia, who’d stopped smiling and put some distance between their bodies.

“I should go,” she mumbled as she struggled to her feet.

“Yeah,” he said, though the way he chewed his lip made it seem like he wanted to say more.

Didn’t take long for Maia to get across the warehouse to her stuff and out of the door. When she stepped outside, she wasn’t entirely sure the chill that ran up her spine was from the wind, but that didn’t mean she was going back in there. She took a deep breath and kept moving, not stopping until she was inside her car.

The moment she sat she could feel the soreness of her limbs, but it would be nothing compared to how she’d feel in the morning. At that point she wanted to get home, shower, roll out her muscles, and eat take out until she fell asleep.

Just as she was to drive off so she could do that her phone buzzed. Maia hesitated to check it out of worry it was Yoongi, but when she forced herself to do so she couldn’t help but think that Yoongi texting her would've been better.

Mama: Hi baby. Wanted to check on you. It’s late so I know you’re studying or asleep. You better be. Get back to me when you can. Love you

That feeling was back. That guilt she tried so hard to suppress was there in full force. Her eyes drifted from her phone to the warehouse, her stomach turning in discomfort. After a minute she dropped the phone in the other seat and drove off, promising she’d call her mother when she got home. Even if she was going to get scolded, she needed to hear her voice.

Needed to soothe herself somehow.


	5. Chapter 5

Three weeks into returning to her former life and Maia was tired. Well, exhausted was a better word. She’d been balancing her schoolwork, training, gang-related activities, and half of her usual solo workout routine. It meant she didn’t get a lot of alone time and very little time to just breathe, but she kept at it. Every day she stayed on task and gave her all in everything she did, ensuring that it was done as best as she could achieve. And it went well, but her body was beginning to wear down fast. One could only last so long going full speed ahead.

Lilith saw that and gave her the weekend off from coming in to work with her. She still had to go to training, but she took what she could get. A few days alone in her apartment, only moving when she wanted to and away from everyone was as close to heaven as she would ever be.

When that free Saturday rolled around, Maia didn’t get out of bed until noon. Only the need for a sip of water and the breakfast she’d ordered for delivery giving her enough reason to. She devoured the food and fell right to sleep again. Then she only got up to use the bathroom or get some water in her because she felt a bit dehydrated. The plan was to keep that going for the rest of the day, but when she woke up around six to order her next meal footsteps could be heard outside her bedroom.

Most people worried about intruders when something like that happened, and she was, but not those kinds of intruders.

Maia rolled her eyes and slowly got out of bed, taking into account she was sore and barely used her body. A few stretches later, and she was out of her room and venturing down the hall to her living room. Where the twins stood making too much noise as they set up camp on her couch.

Both appeared oblivious to her presence.

“What the fuck are you making so much noise for?” she shouted.

They jumped, whipping around to stare at her with shocked and sheepish expressions. Those only lasted for a moment though, because soon they were smiling at her as if they were about to tell her the best news of her life.

“We came to visit you, silly,” Alex said.

Erica nodded. “Yeah, we know you got the weekend off and thought you’d use yesterday as sleep day and then we’d pop in today.”

For a moment all Maia could do was stare at them in disbelief. If she wasn’t awake before, she was now. Maybe the most awake she’d been in the last week or so if she were honest.

Sighing, Maia ran a hand over her face. “Did you call first?”

Alex scoffed. “Uh, no. You obviously wouldn’t answer.”

“Did you text? Email? Send a letter? A telegram?”

They turned to look at each other, both with brows raised. They probably thought that Maia was losing it, and they were right, but she was being very calm for a person who’d wanted alone time and sleep for at least a day.

When no one responded she pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. Doing a back and forth until they realized would take forever and she did not want that, so she went straight to the point.

“I get what you were going for here, but you do know that I had training for six hours yesterday and thus today would be my first free day, right? Like, you remember the conversation we had just before I left to go to my session where I told you this exact information? Right?”

That caused them to turn and stare at each other, eyes wide and confusion etched into their faces. They knew they messed up and that was good enough for Maia because it meant that she didn’t have to waste the energy to call them out for it. But after a moment or two of them not saying anything she was tired of it.

Moving past them, she went for the food covering her coffee table. Without question, she grabbed the container marked for chicken with broccoli and the small container of vegetable fried rice and sat them on the end table next to her love seat. She’d grabbed some water, a ginger ale, and was eating back in her seat before they figured out their shit.

Erica spoke up first, “Well, we’re here now.”

“Obviously,” It was the only word she cared to mutter before shoving a piece of broccoli in her mouth.

Being a little snippy with them wasn’t what she wanted, but there was nothing in her that could stop it. They’d invaded her home without bringing it up to her and while she was grateful for the food, she wasn’t at an energy level that meant visitors of any kind. Even her own mother would get bare minimum out of her if she’d popped up while Maia felt like absolute shit.

At least with food, she’d gain some will to be social and would shed her irritation faster, which they were aware of. So, they simply sat down, put Brooklyn Nine-Nine on the TV, and ate in silence.

The less Maia focused the more comfortable she became. Chinese food and the show were two of her favorite things, so naturally, they made it easy to do. By the time she finished her food the urge to throw pillows at the twins for invading her home had passed.

That didn’t mean her guard was down though.

“So, what else did you come here for?” she asked after taking a sip of water.

“Nothing,” Erica said.

Maia scoffed. “Oh, please. Bringing me food and checking up on me is valid, but this is different. You’re watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine reruns when you don’t even like this show like that. You brought food from my favorite place and not the one closest to my building. I know for a fact that I only had half a box of ginger ale left and yet there is a new box next to the fridge. Plus, if I opened that bag, I’m sure there’s a family size of Cool Ranch Doritos in there for me.”

There were a series of groans and mumbles about her being perceptive, but she said nothing and waited. They’d have to talk eventually; they wouldn’t be able to control themselves if they waited too long.

A minute later and there was a mumble from Alex, but Maia couldn’t quite hear it.

“Could you repeat that?”

Alex rolled his eyes and sighed. “We wanted to ask you some questions about all this. I mean, we know stuff, but not a lot and we’ve heard other stuff. At the end of the day, we want to hear it from you. You don’t have to answer everything if you don’t want to.”

Maia sat back in her seat and mulled it over for a moment. They weren’t wrong. She’d shared very little and there were probably countless whispers about her when she’d returned. Plus, they’d gone years not knowing about that side of her and suddenly they not only knew about it, but got to witness it in all its glory.

Part of her wondered if it was avoidable. If there was anything that could’ve been done so that she’d never had to have the conversation or had it sooner. There was a chance that if she’d gotten them to quit the gang when she found out there were fallen in the midst, they’d never reach the point they were at. But even with that foresight she couldn’t say that fallen angels being around was a valid reason. Fallen were a part of every facet of society, there was no avoiding them.

She could have always argued joining a gang was a problem in itself, but that base was already covered. When Maia stumbled upon the information of their affiliation, she’d interrogated them endlessly. After a week of her questioning and their lack of wavering she knew they were sure of their choice. And she of all people knew what that was like. To be so sure that no one or nothing could deter you. Plus, with the fallen integrated she knew they were safer than if they were a part of some human only gang. Fallen took care of those who pledged themselves to the cause.

Of course, there was the fact that telling them sooner was an option. Pulling them aside and explaining it to them and then proceeding to show them. That one had scared Maia and was the reason she just kept it to herself. There was a chance they knew nothing of fallen or Lucifer and freaking them out wasn’t something she’d wanted. Plus, what the hell was she to do? Let her body become overtaken by flame and made her eyes black? There was no comfortable way to express what she was to them.

Then over time she just didn’t think about it. Even when she could tell they knew about the fallen there was no sense of urgency to tell them anything.

But that was then and they were in a different time. Hell, they were at different places in their lives and things had changed to where there was no other choice but for them to know. No choice but to bring them further into the fold.

Maia needed to be the one to tell them or at least the one to respond to any of their comments, questions, and/or concerns.

It was only right.

“What do you want to know?”

That brought some life back into their faces. Both looked like kids on Christmas who’d gotten the exact present they’d been harassing their parents about.

“How long have you known who your father was?” Alex asked.

“Since I was ten.”

“Did he just throw you into training?” Erica asked.

“No. I took martial arts classes as a kid and did gymnastics at a point too. Though I guess that could be seen as him throwing me into preparation for training if I chose his path.”

For some reason that shocked Erica. “He let you choose?”

“Of course. It’s always been my choice and I could take it back if I decided it wasn’t something I truly wanted.”

The answer Maia gave didn’t seem to give Erica the clarity she wanted or simply left her with more questions than answers. “So, you get to choose to be a fallen?”

Maia pursed her lips in thought for a second. She wanted to answer the question so it didn’t leave things more complicated.

“Well, yes. I’d be part fallen, well angel, no matter what I decided to do with my life. There is no taking that part of me nor that power away from me. But making that allegiance and training with it I’m stronger, but it would still be here. However, being a full-fledged fallen is a choice someone like me would have to make. There is a ritual needed to make it official or I live as half and not at my full potential.”

That seemed to give clarity for her, but then Alex was the one who appeared confused. “You say choose. What are the other choices?”

“I live a relatively normal life as I have been, I choose to become a full-fledged fallen without an allegiance, or I pledge my allegiance to…” Trailing off she merely pointed upwards.

It took a second, but they seemed to catch on pretty quickly.

Alex cleared his throat. “Have you ever thought about doing, uh, that?”

Maia shook her head. “Nah, never been something I even entertained. Not my thing at all. Which is odd because my dad thought I’d at least lean that way a little.”

There was some nodding and sipping on drinks. The silence lasted for so long that she thought that was it, which was weird since they seemed so prepared. But anyone could get derailed from their original line of questioning if something more intriguing came along. Answers to questions always bred new questions.

Maia’s attention wandered to the TV while she waited for them to go on or not. It took about five minutes before Erica had something else and while Maia was eager to answer the expression the woman wore worried her. It was a mix of curiosity, worry, and fear and there was nothing that she could think of that would illicit all of that. At least nothing that would be comfortable for all of them.

Despite her reservations, Maia nodded to give her the go ahead.

“You said you have to do a ritual to become fully fallen. But what is it? Have you done it before? I mean you’re obviously not a fallen fallen, but I just mean there’s a chance that, ya know.”

Goosebumps peppered her skin and a shiver ran up her spine almost immediately and she hated it. Over the years she’d hoped that time and some therapy would help things. That she’d one day remember that time, but have the pain feel so dull that it felt like it occurred in another life. But she had to acknowledge that therapy where she spoke vaguely about it with no one around to say the actual truth to wasn’t ridding her of the trauma. If anything, sometimes it was unnecessary reexposure to it.

“Yeah. Yeah, I have,” she said, her voice shaky.

She fucking hated it. The way it made her feel. The way her mind took her back to that day, forcing her to relive it.

Even as Maia sat with the twins, who expected her not to share much on the subject, she was forced to conjure up whole scenes instead of small images. In her head, there was a reel of what happened playing. The nerves she felt and Yoongi trying to calm her down, reassuring her that he’d watched it a few times before and it wouldn’t be that bad. Her father kissing her forehead before she stepped into the room, though in hindsight she should’ve noticed the unease in his smile. If she’d seen it maybe things wouldn't have happened like they did.

She spaced out and it took a few throat clears before she realized her eyes were closed. When she opened them Erica’s hand was on her thigh squeezing it and Alex was looking at her with poorly concealed sadness.

“Is that…?” Alex asked.

Maia lacked faith in the stability of her voice so she just nodded. “Mhm.”

Erica glared at her brother for a moment, but when she turned back to Maia, a sad smile graced her lips and her eyes were kind. “Oh. We don’t have to talk about it. We can talk about or do something else.”

Taking a deep breath Maia shook her head. “No, I… I can’t tell you what it is and I’m not… I’m not ready to talk about what happened. But the gist is that I wasn't given the full picture and because of that my life was put at risk in a way that it shouldn’t have been. I experienced a type of pain that makes you crave relief that death doesn’t seem capable of giving and I’d wish it on no one. By the end of it, there was no greater sense of betrayal felt by me and I needed to get away from him. From everyone.”

There was solemn silence after that because no one knew what to say. Maia wanted to speak more about it, but she couldn’t find it in herself to divulge more than that, so she fell in line with the silence.

It took several laughs at the expense of Detective Jake Perolta before the tension could truly dissipate. Which was great, but then it left room for the twins to take their question and answer session into different territory.

Alex started it. “So… Yoongi?”

That made Maia throw her head back into her chair and groan. She expected this kind of questioning and prepared for it, but that wouldn’t put a stop to her dramatics.

Maia sighed. “What about him?”

“When are you two going to talk and stop pining? I have two hundred on it happening in the next month. Erica thinks in the next week before you’re back together,” Alex said.

That made Maia roll her eyes. “We are not pining. And I want the money from the bet, since you’re out here using my life to gamble.”

Alex scoffed. “Oh please, you are so pining. Everyone sees the way you look at each other. This intense longing with sad puppy eyes.”

They were right, but she didn’t tell them that. There was no way she’d allow them to try to rush her into things, especially when it was news to her that the anger she felt was truly smaller than she’d thought as years went by. It was still very there and she wanted to kick his ass, but not as much as before. Which was weird and she needed time to adjust to that fact, so she kept the minuscule longing she felt anytime she saw him to herself for as long as she could.

After she realized she’d been silent for too long she just waved them off and focused her attention on the TV. That didn’t mean she didn’t notice the smug expressions on their stupid faces as they assumed, they cornered her.

Jerks.


	6. Chapter 6

Maia stood outside the building of her class talking with the three people who composed her project group. They were figuring out small details about who would be doing what and sharing emails so they could all get access to the group Google document. It was easy enough and she felt the nerves that came with group work disappear. They all appeared to be competent and promised to have something of their part in the document before the week was out.

She walked away content, but the nerves hit the moment she got to the parking lot.

Yoongi leaned against her car, messing with his phone and ignoring the girl who tried to get his attention. It was amusing to watch, but also made Maia uneasy. She’d prepared to see him at some point in the day, but hoped there would be a few more hours before she had to deal with him.

But clearly things changed.

Not wanting to let her awkwardness with him get the best of her Maia kept walking and stopped once she was standing next to the car. The girl who was there looked Maia’s way, scowled and walked off. Yoongi finally stopped being a jerk and glanced up from his phone. When his eyes met hers, a soft smile graced his lips.

“You could’ve just told her to leave you alone,” Maia said.

He shrugged. “I didn’t want to be that much of an asshole to her.”

That made Maia roll her eyes, though she couldn’t suppress the soft laughter that escaped her for a few seconds.

“What are you doing here anyway? I know for a fact that I don’t have to see you until six and it’s only two-thirty.”

Yoongi simply shrugged again before opening the driver side door - which should've been locked - and plopping into the seat. Maia wanted to tell him to get out, but she refrained and went to the other side into the car. Though her compliance didn’t stop her from mumbling about him constantly breaking into her damn car.

After several seconds of him holding out his hand for her keys she tossed them towards him and he finally spoke as the car started up.

“Change of plans today. We’re going a few towns over to test something out, so no training. Think of it more as a test,” he said as he pulled out of the spot.

“A test on what?”

Nothing. He said nothing and just kept driving. It was annoying her and she knew he knew that, but of course he was going to be an ass. As if surprising her and then breaking into her car wasn’t enough of fucking with her for the day.

“For. What?” she asked again.

Still she got nothing and it wasn’t until she was about to ask a third time that he finally gave her a response. “Your influence.”

To say she was surprised would be a lie. Maia anticipated they’d test if she still knew how to use her power, though she expected it to come later. Everything they had her involved in was more strategic and physical, so the expectation was that her first tests would be on those things. But her training wasn’t anything like when she’d first started it years before, so it only made sense that it wasn’t done in any specific order.

It didn’t matter much to her though, so for the rest of the ride she remained quiet. Using her hotspot, she worked within her document to get her part of the project as done as she could. Only pausing when Yoongi made a quick food stop and forced her to eat.

Three hours later she was sat in some bar in a college town surrounded by a weird mix of bikers, frat bros, and sorority girls. How they managed to keep the peace she was unsure, but she could sense the tension that was underneath all the calm.

“Why couldn’t we come here the other way? It’s faster and doesn’t mean I’m getting home late,” she asked after the waitress dropped off their drinks.

“What, you don’t want to be in a car with me for three more hours?” he teased.

Maia rolled her eyes and turned her attention back towards the patrons. All way too rowdy and loud for her taste, but not the worst she’d experience.

“It’s because we’re using the shadows less, not wanting to leave a mark by travelling everywhere we need to. Of course, we could cover our tracks, but it’s easier this way. Plus, I doubt you’d enjoy me showing up and dragging you through them,” he said.

He wasn’t wrong, so she let it go.

Again, her focus turned to everyone else in the room, she took them all in. Making note of what was going on where and how the room reacted. Did the tension increase? Was everyone becoming calmer? Was there any particular cluster of people where someone was ready to boil over?

Of course, a few seconds was all it would take for her to get the outcome she needed, but that was the easy way out and she didn’t want that. Especially since they were there for a reason.

During the last twenty minutes of their trip Yoongi had given her the rundown of the place and what she was to do. They were known to get drunk as hell and rowdy, which often turned to violence. And they did it every week, no one ever being barred from returning, even after someone had gotten behind the bar and managed to break most of the bottles.

The goal was for Maia to send them into a spiral like never before and bring them back, it had to get to the point where they even started cleaning up and paying for their mess. And to top it off it needed to last until they were far away from the bar, so someone would come back to check on that a few hours after they left.

After noticing some animosity between a biker and frat boy Maia took that as her queue. A sprinkle of rage filled the air, not a lot, but just enough to get them going. And in about a minute they were arguing with each other, though it was still tame. As time ticked by the level of rage she spread through the air ramped up, and though there were arguments breaking out everywhere she used those two as her guide.

After about five minutes of harsh words, going back to their groups, and a little pushing the first punch was thrown and it set off the entire place. Everywhere people were screaming in each other’s face, pushing each other, or entering a full-on brawl.

But it still didn’t feel like enough and when Maia glanced towards Yoongi his expression told her that he agreed.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and felt as the toxic energy left her body. When her eyes opened, they were surely black as she fed into their rage, escalating fights to the point that people were throwing chairs, breaking bottles over each other’s heads, and fighting any and everyone no matter the gender.

Maia was thankful that the bar had a no weapons policy, because people had to get creative with what was available.

Sadly, after one too many kicks to the leg she turned to Yoongi who was indicating that it was time for them to make their exit. Sighing, she got up and followed behind him, moving through the chaos with ease as he forced people out of their way without a single touch.

Halfway to the door a stool came flying and barely missed Maia’s head. She paused and turned, only to see a woman dive off a bar and tackle a man twice her size. The moment they hit the ground she began punching him in the face, landing a few that made even Maia wince. He never stood a chance against her.

Once she grew tired of watching the man get his ass kicked her eyes drifted everywhere else. She was pulled in by the chaos, almost it’s prisoner as it held her in some sort of trance. It was just all so interesting and it had been so long since she’d use the power on the scale it was and for rage. In all honesty, it was almost like her first time playing with influence all over again. It was so easy to get lost in.

That was a mistake though.

In a second Maia went from watching two dudes get beat up by one guy to being tackled to the ground. There was little time for her to react, but by the time she came to it was clearly Yoongi who’d come at her. Confusion filled her until she heard a thump and tilted her head to see a body with a smoking hole in its chest on the floor next to her. There was also a shard of glass clutched in it’s hand like a knife.

She’d messed up and cursed herself for it.

Yoongi hauled her onto her feet and dragged her to the door. When they reached it, he turned around to address the room, but she pulled free and put a hand over his mouth. His eyes clearly showed he was angry and wanting to argue, but he let her be.

Turning to the room she took another slow, deep breath and she felt everything calm. Maia didn’t want to dump it all on them at once because it could be too much of a whiplash. But slowly they all stopped their fighting and separated, until they were all just standing there like zombies.

“Attention!” she said and they all turned to her.

“You have done a great inconvenience to this bar owner, it’s workers, and your fellow patrons. You should be ashamed of yourselves for that. So, all of you will apologize to each other and none of you will leave this place until you’ve fixed everything. Plus, you will donate whatever you have to make the repairs needed for things none of you can fix. Got it?”

They all nodded in unison and with a flick of her wrist they got to work apologizing and cleaning up the space. Yoongi didn’t allow her to linger any longer after that, dragging her down the street and to her car. He didn’t even say a word as he drove off, though his anger was only amplifying the farther they went.

It wasn’t until halfway through the trip that he pulled into an empty parking lot and turned to her. He still maintained his silence as he stared her down, and it was making her very uncomfortable, but she didn’t look away from him. She knew that a scolding was deserved for her slip up.

After a deep breath, he finally spoke. “You would have survived, but can you even imagine what would have happened if something major would’ve been hit by the glass? We heal, but it would take a lot of time for you to heal from being paralyzed. Especially for you, Mai. It was like a fuckin’ war zone in there, Maia. It wasn't time for you to sit back and watch the show.”

Maia nodded, chewing softly on her lower lip for a moment. “I know I messed up. I got caught up in the chaos and how it made me feel, forgetting that any risk that would come to me if I didn’t watch out. It won’t happen again.”

He looked at her like there was more he wanted to say, but instead he groaned and threw his head back. She watched the anger drain from his body, but he was still upset and tense. Guilt gnawed at her, but she didn’t know what to say or do.

“Look…”

Before she could say more, he was sitting up again and his body was turned to face her. “Nope. Actually, this is the perfect time for a conversation. Don’t you think?”

It didn’t take much for her to know what he meant and that made her want to get away. She could obviously get home and he could drop off her car when he got it back into town. But even with an out Maia couldn’t find it in her to move. She knew it was time, even if she didn’t want it to be.

“Yoongi,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “No. You don’t get to talk me out of this again. You don’t get to tell me what you don’t feel like doing. Because you know what? I don’t feel like having to corner you to get you to talk about this. I don’t feel like I should have to fight for this. I don’t feel like an ally in this war, the spawn of Lucifer himself, and my girlfriend should’ve had to endure what she did and then receive the treatment she did after a horrific incident. Something I didn’t know would for sure happen. And yet it’s being used against me. I don’t feel like I should be pushed away, Maia.”

The more he said, the more guilt settled into her. But it wasn’t the only thing hitting her. All her emotions were surfacing and made it hard to pinpoint what was the strongest or what her body felt what the appropriate reaction was. Even her mind was in shambles, trying to pull together what she wanted to say. What she needed to say.

But Maia was her father’s child.

“Shit happens. People move on. Even if it’s not what we…”

Yoongi shut that down immediately. “Do you know I worried that you weren't completely better? That you'd not healed completely from that entirely fucked situation. You were broken mentally and physically for months, Maia. Gone was the vibrant, crazy, dorky girl that I'd grown to know. You'd become just like the tortured souls that roam Hell, completely empty. Then, you were better and functioning, talking to me again. Not even a full day later and you tell me you’re done. You vanish and make it clear that even I’m not welcomed in your presence.

“Mai. Lovie. I was hurt. I am hurt. But I’m worried about you and you’re doing everything you can to shut me out. I can see the pain etched into your face.”

Of course, the obvious choice was to deny, but she couldn’t do that while looking into his eyes. As he’d spoken - pleaded - with her a hand reached up to angle her head so she was staring at his face. But it wasn’t the only thing keeping her in place. She just couldn’t find it in her to turn away. Not when he looked at her with such sadness and worry. Yoongi looked as vulnerable as Maia felt.

And in no time, she broke.

“You weren’t there. You were supposed to be there,” she sobbed.

Maia’s body shook as the tears fell and she felt like she was letting it all out for the first time. That she was finally allowed to be completely vulnerable and express how what happened felt for her. It felt so good, even through the pain, but it also felt so stupid.

She could’ve had that support.

In no time Yoongi pulled her into him, adjusting his seat so that he could get her onto his lap. His arms wrapped around her tightly and he pressed multiple kisses to the top of her head.

“I know, lovie. I fucking know. You know there was a change of plans or else I would’ve been there. You know that. Do you not think that it hurt for me to see you like that? To think that I was going to lose you? I'd fix it if I could. I’d take your place so you didn’t have to endure it if I could. But I couldn’t stop it. You know that.”

Of course, she knew that, but what place did logic have when someone was hurting so much and no one who could’ve saved them did.

“It hurt. No, hurt isn’t a word that can be used to describe that pain. A physical level is one thing, but that was a mental pain that I’d never thought I could feel. And then it surpassed the mental and physical and touched my soul. The pain never stopped. The pain never dulled. I felt like I was dying even while I was getting better. Even after it was gone, it wasn’t gone. And then when I’d finally escaped it my dreams were tainted by it. Sleeping was almost impossible. I spent freshman year partying nights away just too dull the effect it had. The stupid dreams have lessened, but they still won’t fuckin leave me alone.”

The more she spoke, the more she calmed despite the clear distress displayed in the last sentence. That didn’t mean the tears stopped though. Those came in full force and stained Yoongi’s shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind. He remained a pillar of comfort, despite the fact that Maia heard him sniffling the moment the dam broke for her own tears.

“I know, Maia,” he said softly. “I watched you every second of the day that I could. Wishing that you would be okay and that it would be over already. I was beyond happy when you could open your eyes on your own, even more so when you could finally talk and move again. But what I didn’t understand is how you went from excited about that and to see me, to shunning me as if I were the problem. What the hell did I do, Maia?”

When she sat there in silence, he forced her face away from his chest, hands cupping her cheeks and eyes boring into hers.

“I…” her voice broke and she took a moment to collect herself. “I needed distance. Space. Time. I needed to be far away from him and from anything connected to him as I could get. I needed to be away from those who hurt, who I felt were a part of causing or not stopping it and that meant you. I needed the sever the connection completely.”

Yoongi scoffed at that, breaking eye contact for a moment to roll his eyes. A humorless laugh even escaped him.

“You are his flesh and blood, there was no breaking that connection. Which you know very well from how you felt the first and only time you thought you’d chosen the wrong path and tried to run. And it’s not like I would’ve forced you to talk about him or anything of that nature. Hell, we spent the first year of our relationship speaking not a word about what we did outside of us being there. So, try again,” he said.

Despite the situation she couldn’t help but be the one scoffing next. Eyes narrowed on him. “Don’t pretend that your appearance in my life wasn’t based solely because he wanted you to be there. This wasn’t some fairytale romance; you were there for a jo…”

Another laugh from him, but that time it was real and the smirk on his face told her that he was very amused.

“What? I was sent down to be your bodyguard because a few angels were circling in too close when you went to school? Don’t act like you didn’t make me in seconds, Maia. You let me think that my glamour was enough to throw you off until I walked you home and you told both of us about our failure. And even if you hadn’t that doesn’t mean my feelings didn’t blossom and aren’t real. Next.”

That one wasn’t even an excuse and it annoyed her that he treated it as one. Was he completely wrong? No, but that didn’t change how things started and how he was a thorn in her side for the first few months, who refused to give her the time of day otherwise. She’d expressed that’s how she sometimes felt before and he’d reassured her, but that didn’t change the facts of their situation.

But she wasn’t going to linger on that. There was no point in revisiting that argument with him. At least within the moment.

Taking a deep breath, she turned her head a little, but didn’t remove her face from his touch. After a few seconds she spoke up.

“After a while. I just didn’t want to deal with your pity if you stayed.”

Those words changed the atmosphere in the car. And though Maia wasn’t lying, she also knew that that thought hadn’t stuck with her particularly long. When she’d pulled her head out of her ass, she’d been disgusted that the thought had ever come. But it was part of what kept her away, even if she hated to admit it.

Yoongi forced her gaze on him once more and though his expression was still gentle, she could see how annoyed he was with her.

“Okay, now I feel like you’re trying to piss me off. I have never pitied you. Worried about? Yes. Wished things were better for you? Definitely. But pity isn’t something I’d feel, especially knowing how it makes you feel. So, do you have anything else?”

She didn’t. At least that’s what she told herself for the first few seconds that they stared at each other. But the more she sat with her thoughts, the easier it was to get to the root of the problem. To say what she’d been wanting to say, but with no one to say it to.

“I was fucking terrified, okay? I was scared and hurt. I was experiencing something that no one should have to suffer through and at a time where I thought I’d have every ounce of support from him and it wasn’t there. The obvious and stupid outcome that my brain came to was that my anger at you was valid, and it was, but that it was more intense than it should’ve been. I went from feeling nothing, to everything and suddenly I couldn’t properly measure how much I truly felt. And so, once that rage had settled in and I couldn’t figure out how to address it, the next thing I could think of was you turning your back on me was inevitable. You abandoning me to fight my demons alone was all I could think about. And obviously after what happened I’d already felt like you did it once and you’d do it again. Is that the answer you wanted?”

A minute passed and then another before he finally said something. “Yes, it is. But now I have another question. What made it so easy to walk away?”

That one felt like a jab at her. Of all the things that he’d said, it felt like it was meant to hurt her in some way. And it pissed her off. Then it was her turn to grip his face and ensure that he could see her staring into his soul.

“Don’t ever say that was easy for me. None of this was easy for me. Sure, the ideas of running came to me without question, but that doesn’t make running from something, from someone easy to do. I was leaving behind a life I’d dedicated myself to for years, something I believed in because I couldn’t stand to be around him. I was leaving behind people I loved, regardless of how they made me feel. I was leaving behind one of my best friends and boyfriend, someone I deemed a rock in my life. That shit hurt and I wanted to come back so many times. Wanted to at least see you if nothing else, but I couldn’t.”

For a few minutes after that it was just them staring at each other. Neither of them backed down or even blinked. To someone on the outside it would look a tad scary, especially because their expressions were so serious.

“I’m guessing that’s the answer you were looking for. Which you could’ve gotten if you hadn’t gone on fishing for it and just asked out right.” she said, breaking the silence.

Yoongi shrugged. “I didn’t want half-truths from you. So, I got my answers how I needed to get them.”

Again, they went silent, but it was a calm one. There was no awkwardness or tension in the air. It was just them collecting themselves after an emotional and intense conversation. In fact, the only thing that Maia felt was relief. Some of her emotional baggage had been lifted off her and life felt a tiny bit lighter.

Several minutes went by and she tried to figure out what to do next, but her attention was drawn back to him and his caress of her cheeks. He looked at her with a gentleness that was untainted by sadness. A gentleness that held nothing, but love and kindness.

“Listen here. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it a thousand more times if I need to. I get it. That entire situation was out of hand and should have never happened. I'm here for you, though. Even with the work we have to do, you are the one I care about most. You are one of my priorities. You are the person who holds one hundred percent of my loyalty. I love your special ass, even if you sometimes have crappy reasons for what you do. I'm here for you, lovie. Always,” he said softly.

A few stray tears slipped out at his words and his fingers wiped them away. Then he leaned forward and kissed her nose before pressing his forehead against hers.

“No more braving everything alone.”


	7. Chapter 7

“You’re sparring with Emil today. It’ll start in two minutes,” Sama’el said the moment Maia stepped foot into the warehouse.

Not wanting to deal with his shit if she wasn’t on the mat in time Maia dropped her stuff near a wall and downed some water before heading over. Once at the perimeter of the mat she stretched a little and did some jogging in place. She’d warmed up beforehand, but it didn’t feel like enough.

While she prepared not once did her eyes drift from the people sparring, she needed to get into that headspace. And she was avoiding eye contact with Yoongi who stood directly across from her.

Ever since their conversation there was this calm around him, but she was still awkward with him. And he was with her. They’d left a few things in the air, deciding the topic was heavy enough without trying to figure out the next steps. A more gradual approach was what they needed and it was weird, but Maia managed it well.

Except when he was very clearly staring at her. That made her a little flustered.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to deal with it for too long. The spar ended and after a quick wipe down of the mat she and her partner stepped up. They regarded each other briefly and then he was coming at her.

Maia sparred with Emil a few times before and she’d enjoyed it, but he had a habit of being predictable to start. He charged forward and tried to get in a hit, but then there was this weird footwork he did to make it seem he was changing direction to throw you off. It wasn’t inventive by any means and always left him open, so every time she ended up landing a few punches to his sides and stomach before he retreated.

Their fights remained stagnant like that for a while and either she’d get fed up or Emil would finally switch it up.

In that particular spar both things happened at once. Maia no longer wanted to play his game and came at him, while Emil darted off to the side trying to come at her from a different angle. Sadly, for him Maia was also coming for him from that way and managed to lower herself so that when they collided her arms could wrap around his legs. The moment she had him he went over her shoulder, headfirst into the ground.

Maia was already grasping one of his legs before they could hit the ground and she put him into a leg lock. Her hold was as tight as could get and it made him cry out. The pain didn’t stop him though, he tried to get free and almost succeeded in getting her off. She couldn’t let that happen though and with one abrupt move she yanked it the wrong way, the cracking sound sending a slight shiver down her spine.

It got him to stop moving.

Of course, they could’ve kept going but in sparring the stopping point was when some was very injured. There was no point in going all out on him because it meant he’d be out of training for longer.

When Maia stepped off the mat Sama’el looked at her with a look that she assumed was contentment, but it was nearly impossible to tell with the demon.

“You did good. Didn’t let him mess around for nearly as long and took him down as was necessary. Of course, the break wasn’t completely necessary but it’s fine. You’re done with hand to hand. You can move on to weapons,” Sama’el said.

Sama’el told her in her last session that she’d be moving on soon, but that didn’t lessen the giddiness that she felt when given the go ahead. Weapons training was something she had missed and the kendo classes she took in lieu of it didn’t cut it.

So, like a kid on Christmas ready for presents she made her way across the warehouse and towards the area where weapon spars took place. There were two mats, both being used, but she was drawn to the one farther away.

On that second mat were Hoseok, battle axe in hand, and a familiar fallen named Marisol wielding her broadsword. They were going at each other hard but moving in a way that showed they clearly knew each other’s tricks. More often than not they ended up with weapons pressed together and trying to push one another off balance. Despite Marisol being much smaller than Hoseok she was almost equally as strong and could hold him off well.

For several minutes Maia watched them go at it, but just as she grew the slightest bit bored Marisol used her broadsword to send him tumbling backwards. Hoseok landed on his behind hard and though there was pain etched into his face he started laughing.

“You gotta stop doing that, Mar,” he said.

Marisol rolled her eyes and helped him up. “Then you have to stop not taking the swing at my head when I clearly failed to protect it.”

To that Hoseok merely shrugged and after a high five he went on his merry way. Though he didn’t miss the opportunity to throw a wink in Maia’s direction, which is how she realized that Yoongi was standing behind her.

She paid him no mind though.

“Marisol,” she called out to get the woman’s attention. “Are you up for another round?”

For a moment Marisol looked ready to turn her down, but then she nodded. “Give me a minute or two to breathe and drink some water.”

Maia nodded. She needed a minute to grab a weapon since she didn’t have her own with her, which put a damper on her mood, but she was still excited. Turning around she planned to walk past Yoongi to the wardrobe of weapons, but he refused to let her by. It took her a few seconds to notice the box in his hands and when she did, he opened it.

Joy filled her immediately.

Inside the case were her twin scimitars. Both as beautiful as the last time she’d seen them. They were obsidian from hilt to the tip of the blade. The curved blade had a few nicks from use, but they were still sharp and intact. The hilt had hints of gold etched into them, swirls and sigils; marks that told of their origin - Hell.

When Maia could tear her gaze from them, she glanced at Yoongi who wore a wide smile and watched her closely. She returned the smile and whispered a thank you before heading towards the mat.

Once there she moved the swords around. The weight felt the same, but she hadn’t used them in so long and wanted the chance to get comfortable. And as if they’d never parted, she moved the blades through the air with ease. Her body and the scimitars moved as one and she felt so much happiness course through her.

“Ready?” Marisol asked after a few minutes.

Maia nodded and stepped back, putting space between the two of them. After she got into a ready stance - one scimitar at her side and the other held diagonally in front of her - she nodded again and they began to circle each other.

After they danced around each other for a bit Marisol stepped closer and Maia mimicked her movements, but in the reverse. But her steps were smaller than Marisol's; she maintained distance but didn’t completely shy away.

Finally, Marisol made an offensive movement. Her broadsword came down on the sword Maia had out in front of her, though the hit only made Maia lower in stance a little as she met her with the same force. While their swords pushed against each other Maia used the one by her side to slice towards Marisol’s hip; she dodged her and moved away again. But it wasn’t long before she was coming back at Maia and she had to deal with that harsh scraping sound that the blades made.

That time Maia was the one who was forced to retreat as Marisol twisted her wrist and aimed at her torso. Maia’s reactions were quick and as they came at each other constantly there was a sense of comfort that filled her. She felt herself become used to the fighting and less out of it.

Which meant that she was coming at Marisol harder with each swing.

When Maia grew more confident, she eagerly took on the role of attacker. Both scimitars took a swing at Marisol, one angled to slice across her shoulder and the other thrust at her stomach. Marisol retreated, but Maia still managed to make a cut in her shirt and there was a slightly red line on the skin of her chest.

That sparked something in Marisol.

The woman charged at her, but Maia had the time to use both her swords to block her and it caused Marisol to be stuck for a moment. Maia didn’t waste that opening though, once they were locked Maia kicked out her leg and sent Marisol stumbling backwards. She almost fell but caught herself before she hit the ground.

Once stability was regained, she came back at Maia with a ferocity that she’d lacked for the start of their spar. They both went at each other hard, with a few hits and misses on both sides. A somewhat deep cut on Maia’s arm had her feeling fire kick up inside her, but she pushed it down. Her focus was on coming at Marisol with all she had, while fighting the fire that wanted to push to the surface. The more she had to fight it the more frustrated she grew and the more openings Marisol was given.

She could feel the cuts and the blood dripping from them.

Maia backed away to the edge of the mat and took a deep breath, she needed to get her head in the game or she’d end up the clear loser. After a second, she charged forth and came at Marisol. She still struggled a bit, but she was getting hit less and delivering more damage. The deep cut along Marisol’s bicep made her particularly pleased.

But it wasn’t enough for Maia, she wanted to take it a step further. The need to do better filled her despite how well she was doing for someone out of practice.

Another deep breath and she focused on Marisol more. Every move she made, no matter how small, was on Maia’s radar and she made note of it. When her body leaned a little this or that way. When her foot shuffled and gave indication of what her next move would be. If she was pulling back a little, thus showing that she planned to dodge. Even if her eyes flitted one way or another.

That’s how she noticed her body lean slightly to the left and then watched her broadsword go the same way a few seconds later.

It felt like slow motion when she did it, but she knew it happened in real time. Maia used the scimitar in her left hand to knock Marisol’s sword out of the way and used the one in her right to thrust forward. Marisol had no time to react and the tip of Maia’s sword sunk into her stomach.

Marisol’s eyes were wide with pain and surprise. Carefully she pulled away and dropped her sword, her hand moved to press against her bleeding abdomen. Maia dropped her swords as well, indicating the end of the round.

Someone came to Marisol’s side to hold her, but before she walked away, she turned to Maia and smiled.

“Excellent job for someone so out of practice. I won’t allow you to find your groove next time.” And with that she was taken away to have her wounds treated.

It left Maia alone with her excitement, though there were a few people who milled around after Marisol left. Probably to use the mat for their own sparring sessions.

So not to be in their way she leaned over to retrieve her swords, but the pain of her own wounds settled in. She stood up immediately and noticed the blotches of blood on her light blue leggings and winced. They would get thrown away because there was no trick she knew that would get that much blood out.

Before she could try and collect her weapons again, they were already scooped up and deposited in the case they’d been handed to her in. And Yoongi had his arm carefully wrapped around her waist and was guiding her towards the exit.

“Let’s get you home. You can shower, eat something overly greasy and then knock out. I’m sure you’ll be mostly healed by the time you wake up,” he said.

Though she thought there would be some sort of rejection, not an ounce of it existed in her body. All the pain was kicking in and she most definitely needed help getting out of the warehouse and to her apartment. She was sure that even if she opted to use the shadows to get home something would go wrong.

So, Yoongi took her home and coddled her just like she needed. And, on some level, wanted.


	8. Chapter 8

A couple months in Maia was sent on her first mission. Well, her first mission where she did more than watch from the shadows. Lilith had finally given the go ahead and she was sent off with the twins, Yoongi, and a few other fallen to handle a small gang related thing.

They went in to entice a fight with some people as a way to lay claim to a territory. All it took was for them to set up shop on a corner to “deal” and they were surrounded within ten minutes. Then men came in real hostile, with numbers almost double theirs and hands under shirts to indicate that they had weapons.

It was essentially a test of her hand to hand skills since she’d not been allowed a weapon of any kind. Which was kind of fun when she’d had to disarm people who were most definitely packing. The shock in their expressions was hilarious.

The mission went off without a hitch. Well, for the most part. The twins got excited about their success too soon and Alex ended up with a black eye before anyone could stop the guy. It wasn’t too bad, so he was fine; plus, it was a lesson well learned for him.

Once they finished, they left and debriefed at the meeting point several blocks away. It wasn’t something that needed Lilith present or filled in immediately, so there was no need to go back to the safe house. Which Maia was thankful for because after the adrenaline wore off the tired kicked in. She could function fine but getting home as soon as she could sounded ten times better than a meeting.

When they finished their debriefing, they all went to part ways. The twins walked behind her talking animatedly and Yoongi snuck up beside her.

“So, do you have to study or can we order take out and binge something?” he asked.

Maia scoffed. “Who says you’re invited to my apartment? Or that I want to spend more time with you?”

Out the corner of her eye she saw him smirk and knew that he wasn’t just going to let it go. Of course, he was going to be a little shit about it.

“I didn’t say your apartment. It could be mine,” he said.

That made Maia throw her head back and laugh, though it was cut short and her expression went blank as she turned to look at him.

“The apartment you bought next door to mine that you didn’t bother to tell me about? Yeah, sure.”

Not planning to deal with him for the moment Maia stopped walking and turned around to face the twins. When they noticed she’d stopped moving they did too, giving her their full attention.

“What are you two dorks doing tonight? Besides taking care of that eye,” she asked.

Erica pursed her lips and then shrugged. “Nothing much. Probably study for tha..”

In an instant Maia’s attention shifted. A wave of discomfort hit her and immediately she was searching the area. Her eyes moved rapidly through the skies and along the streets, though the former was her main focus. It took a few seconds, but then she zeroed in on a wing flapping through the clouds. Before she could process that, the owner of it was in sight and they had a few other friends with them.

“Fuck,” she said.

Her gaze flitted towards the few fallen who’d lingered and they already had their weapons ready to go. When she looked at Yoongi his dual-bladed staff was being pulled from the shadows and his eyes focused on those flying above.

“Are those angels?” Alex asked, disbelief tinged his voice.

The moment he said it one of them swooped down and was coming at one of the fallen. Then another one came down and attacked the other.

Yoongi turned towards her for a second before darting forward to meet the third angel to join in. He shouted as he went, “Get them out of here, Maia.”

That got her in gear and before anything else could happen she was tackling the twins and they were all swallowed by darkness. A few seconds later they landed in a heap on the floor of her apartment.

“What the fuck?” Erica shouted as she looked around.

“Were those angels? What’s happening?” Alex asked.

Maia would have to explain, but now wasn’t the time.

Getting up from the ground her hands had already entered the shadows and she pulled out her scimitars. Taking a breath, she stared at the twins seriously.

“Stay here. Do not leave my apartment, you’re safer here. And don’t answer the door for anyone. Understood?”

When she got small nods from both of them, she was already letting herself become consumed, navigating the shadows back to where she’d left the others.

Maia appeared just inches from some angel’s blade and barely had time to duck out of the way. Thankfully her attacker was a little wobbly after their missed hit and she whirled around just as they did, sinking one of her swords into his stomach.

The poor newbie angel’s eyes went wide and he crumbled to the ground. She pulled her sword free and left them to wither in the pain. They were the least of her worries in that particular fight.

Soon her sights were on two angels attacking one fallen. Without hesitation she charged towards them, swords at the ready. Halfway there one of the angels noticed her and changed course. She came at Maia fast, her wings helping her dodge those fighting around her.

Once they were inches apart, they went at each other. Maia thrust her scimitars at her, but she slammed her own sword down to push them away. The angel lowered closer to the ground and tried to kick Maia, but she was able to move out of her path. However, the angel also swung her blade again and it sent Maia wobbling to regain footing as she dodged her. It led to a few more attempts at evading until she regained her composure.

With a well-timed attack Maia nicked her shoulder. That pissed off the angel and they descended into their fight further. It was filled with near misses and scrapes here and there. And Maia got more frustrated by the second. She had to remind herself that not all fights were swift and she wasn’t some all-powerful being that should be able to defeat someone in an instant.

Life didn’t work like that.

After minutes of trying to pinpoint a weakness Maia zoned in on the way the angel’s wings moved. The way they fluttered gave her an indication of which way she’d go. But just as she was to exploit that knowledge another angel swooped in to interfere with her plans.

It was overwhelming for her, but she took a breath and kept on pushing. Using her skill and strength she was able to fight them off until she devised another plan.

The angel who’d joined their struggle was keeping his distance and would only get close if the other was moving away from Maia. It was as if they had some sort of agreement to only come at her one at a time. As if to distract her long enough for the other to get close enough. So, she used that.

When he got close to her Maia pushed off the ground and kicked him, sending the man flying back and almost tumbling to the ground if not for his wings. And when she whipped around the other angel was inches from her with her sword raised and her stomach unguarded. Maia had her scimitar plunged into the angel within seconds and as she dropped onto her knees and howled out, Maia smirked.

Flame flowed from Maia’s body and coated the blade. Within seconds the angel was screaming for her savior and then she was nothing but ash.

By the time Maia turned around to face her other opponent, she saw him lying on the ground with Yoongi’s staff in his chest. In seconds he too was nothing more than ash and Yoongi was already working on the angel who attempted to sneak up on him.

The way he came at them hard, attacking as if he knew what their move was before they did, was amazing. He’d gotten even better in Maia’s absence, which she assumed was impossible in the first place. Though she maintained her watch for any more angels coming out, a good chunk of her focus was on his battle.

The angel he was with seemed to realize what he was dealing with and tried to flee after a close call. Yoongi wouldn’t allow it though. His hand gripped the angels wing and he slammed them onto the ground. His staff rammed into the angel’s chest soon after.

Though she’d enjoy seeing him continue his relentless attack there was a pressing matter. To Maia’s left a fallen plummeted from the sky, his weapon falling away from him. His attacker was seconds away from swinging his axe, but Maia was able to launch one of her scimitars like a javelin and distract him.

It sent the angel flying out of target range.

As she reached into a shadow, she called upon to retrieve her sword midair her eyes made contact with the fallen. He was wounded and would do her any good if he got hurt further.

“Get out of here,” she shouted.

Nodding, he rolled over to grab his weapon and then the shadows carried him away.

With him gone Maia’s full attention went back to the angel. He hovered in the sky and glared, but in a second, he was flying at her. That didn’t mean she waited for him, in fact she sprinted at full force and met him halfway.

When their weapons clashed together, she was thrown off kilter a bit, but was able to find it in her to push him back. And he moved away without much fight. That wasn’t a good thing, at least not to Maia.

She was proven right when he came at her again, but harder. The force of that clash sent her back several feet, but she’d been able to keep on her feet. Her attacker didn’t seem to think she’d take the hit so he’d stayed back, but came at her quickly when she didn’t hit the ground.

The next hit she was prepared for. Maia used one sword to fight off his and the other to slice at his arm. She was able to get a deep cut into his shoulder, but he didn’t flinch. If anything, that hit made him more focused and he came at her faster.

Keeping up with him was wearing her down and she hated it. Hated how he had all that energy while hers depleted, even though she was giving all she had and more to keep him from doing anything major. Her body just wasn’t used to all the activity and no matter how hard she went in training it wasn’t the same as a real fight.

But she would be damned if she didn’t kick his ass until she couldn’t.

With a new sense of purpose, she was coming at him and she was coming out on top. All her blows landed and his calm facade was clearly breaking. However, Maia didn’t notice the dagger that he’d pulled out until it sliced her arm.

It didn’t faze her. If anything, she was amused by the little prick. Smirking, she moved to drive her blade into his side which he’d left open, but then her body felt like it was shutting down.

Maia’s arm faltered and she swayed from side to side, before finally her knees met the pavement. When she looked at the angel, he was smirking at her and moving closer. She tried to get up and go for him, but then she felt the world slow down and blur.

Again, she fell onto her knees andt her face planted into the ground. Her vision was spotty and she felt drugged, but then the pain kicked in. A scream ripped through her throat but she couldn’t hear it.

Then she was consumed by darkness.

###

When light finally burst through the darkness Maia’s eyes fluttered open and she felt worse than when she’d gone under. But instead of feeling like she was being murdered on the cold ground it was on something soft.

It took several seconds before her vision cleared and she could see where she was, but even then, it was confusing for a while. All she was sure of was that Lilith was holding her hand and there was some man she didn’t know pricking her.

“What the fuck happened?” Maia croaked.

The word ‘happened’ came out in a scream though because she was hit with an intense wave of pain. Her body convulsed as it passed through and her eyes fluttered closed again.

“Stay with me, Maia. Squeeze my hand until you break it if need be, but stay with me,” Lilith urged.

So much of her felt drained beyond belief, but she did what was asked of her. After a few labored, deep breaths her eyes opened again and she tried to focus on everything except for how she was feeling.

Her eyes traveled the room as she tried to figure out where she was. There was a mid-century gothic style to it and a bit farther away there was a throne sitting there. Obsidian and etched with gold and red.

She was in Hell.

Before she could question why another jolt of pain hit her.

Through gritted teeth she spoke. “Seriously, what the fuck is happening?”

The unfamiliar man spoke up for the first time. “It’s some form of poison. Your body wouldn't have reacted this strong if it wasn't for the human side.”

Maia cursed the angels. The urge to go back up there and find the one who’d poisoned her was strong. She wanted to get her hands on him. Wanted to tear him limb from limb and watch him burn to ash.

As she plotted her revenge a loud banging sound filled the room and made her head hurt more than it already did. But seconds after it Yoongi was taking the place of Lilith and holding her hand tight.

His hands shook and she could see the anger etched into every crevice of his face. And the blood splattered across it.

For several moments he just stared at her and held her hand tight when a new round of pain hit her. But after a while the anger fell away and the worry was the most prominent thing.

“So, you plan to kill me via fits of rage and worry? Or were you hoping I’d go on a rampage so that He'd just strike me down?” he asked, his tone light.

That made Maia laugh.

“I was hoping for the ram… Shit,” she shouted as a needle was rammed into her leg.

Whatever was in it hit her almost immediately. She felt loopy and her body tingled, working its way up to a burning feeling that made her cry out. As Yoongi reassured her that it would be fine the feeling dipped and slowly she didn’t feel anything at all. Minutes passed and some normalcy was regained, but she still felt off and couldn’t move. Yoongi helped by moving her limbs around until they functioned properly and then she was sitting up on the couch and downing water she’d been given.

Once everything felt fine, she punched Yoongi because she knew he’d been distracting her from the needle before. Some warning would’ve been nice, especially since she felt a slight pain in her thigh from where it entered.

Yoongi paid her no mind though; his focus was on her body. Both his eyes and hands moved over her skin, brushing clothing out of the way here and there to get a better look at what lay underneath.

“Seems like that also helped with all your bruises and cuts too. That’s good,” he mumbled to himself.

Content with that he smiled at her and before she knew it, she smiled back. His hand moved to caress her cheek as they stared at each other for a moment. It was as if they were the only two people in the room.

Clearing her throat Maia looked away when she realized what was happening. “Uh, thanks for getting me out of there, by the way.”

Yoongi shook his head and pointed behind him. “Actually, that was Lilith. I'd been in the midst of yanking my staff free from that prick angel when she pulled you through.”

Maia was surprised and turned to a blushing Lilith. The woman shook her head and waved her off.

“The fallen you sent back alerted us to what was happening. I came to check and saw what happened. I thought it best to just pull you back to where healing would happen the fastest,” Lilith said.

Despite her feelings for her she was grateful and wouldn’t deny it when her life was saved. “Well, thank you. That was a horrible experience and I'm glad it was over sooner rather than later.”

Maia gave her a small smile, which Lilith returned. But before that moment could turn awkward a voice boomed and scared the crap out of all of them.

“You’re okay. That’s great,” said Lucifer.

Maia’s father stood several feet away from them, watching intently. His expression was neutral, but she could see in his eyes that he was concerned and conflicted. All Maia could do was nod, because no matter his worry the scene was too familiar. It felt like that time all those years before, which stirred distress and discomfort inside of her. Not to mention anger, but her body had very little energy to waste on that emotion.

Thankfully, she wasn’t alone in the memory. Or at least the expressions of Lilith and Yoongi made it seem like they’d been transported there too.

Lucifer sighed after a minute or two, which brought everyone’s attention back to him. He appeared put out and unsure but pulled it together once he noticed their gaze.

“Well, the doc said you'll be fine after some rest. You can have your room or Yoongi can take you home.” And with that he turned and left the room.

Left all of them to process what happened themselves. Something that he seemed fond of doing when it came to Maia’s near-death experiences.


	9. Chapter 9

Maia sat outside her mother’s house for way too long debating if she should flee. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to see her mother, especially when she had a break and hadn’t visited her in a while. The problem, which wasn’t a problem, was the cross that was hanging next to the front door. It hadn’t been there when she’d come home the last time.

Again, it wasn’t a real issue. At least not with the reaction she had to it. Which was guilt. The only thing she felt was guilt and the only thing on her mind was guilt.

It plagued her.

The cross reminded her of her chosen path and the change in her life over a few months. How she’d returned to training and working to spread Lucifer's message. To spread sin. Something that was the complete opposite of her mother. Something that would destroy her if she knew, especially knowing how it was tied to Maia’s father. And though she’d made her peace with her choice the cross managed to throw her off.

That couldn’t deter her from seeing her mother though, so after about twenty minutes of sitting in her car she grabbed her duffle bag and got out. But before her foot even hit the first step up to the porch her mother was in front of the door and smiling at her.

All Maia’s negative feelings left instantly as she bounded up the stairs towards her mother. She dropped her bag and pulled her into a tight hug, which her mother returned with as much ferocity.

“Hi mama,” Maia mumbled.

There was no response, just a continued hug, which Maia didn’t mind one bit. One of her favorite places was in the embrace of her mother, it made her feel loved and like she always had a place with her no matter what changed. Maia was even willing to ignore the ache that always presented itself because of their height difference. She was used to that anyway. Ever since she got up to five-eleven when she was twelve trying to hug her mom’s five-two frame was a little awkward.

After a minute or so her mother finally pulled away, leaning back to smile at her daughter which Maia returned. And as they stared at each other for a while Maia was swept up in how it was like looking into a mirror. She looked almost exactly like her mother. Right down to the mole near their mouths and always being the same shade of brown even when summer came and Maia avoided the sun.

“My baby. My goodness I’ve missed you. You need to visit your mama more,” she playfully scolded.

Maia simply laughed at that. Of course, she said that every time and then scolded her when she’d appear too often because that meant that Maia wasn’t out “living her life.” It was adorable.

But before Maia could relay that to her mother, she’d picked up her duffle bag and led her into the house.

“Get comfortable, dinner is almost finished,” she said before disappearing down the hall.

Maia kicked off her shoes and placed them in the cubby. By the time she stood back up her mother was back and handing her a bottle of ice-cold root beer. It made her smile way too hard, one where her chubby cheeks are so high that her eyes appear somewhat closed. She took the drink happily and leaned down to press a kiss to her mother’s cheek.

The moment was broken by the appearance of her stepfather, Issac, coming into the foyer to greet her. He smiled at her. One of those creepy, too genuine ones that she’d realized early on was a norm for the balding black preacher.

“Maia, it’s so good to see you. Glad you could join us during spring break,” Issac said.

However, before Maia could respond he was being ushered down the hall towards the kitchen. “I am too, but no small talk here. You can do all of that at the table. The twins and Samantha should be in the dining room, Mai.”

With that Maia took a deep breath and headed to the dining room. Sure enough, the twins were sitting across from each other in deep conversation and Samantha was - thankfully - sitting next to Alex and at the farthest point from Maia.

“Hello, hello,” Maia said as she sat down.

The twins smiled at her and Samantha didn’t bother looking up from her phone, which Maia also considered a win for her.

“Hey. How’d that last midterm go?” Alex asked.

Maia shuddered at the thought. “It was like five true and false questions and five essay questions. I wanted to cry. I’m pretty sure four people just left after they saw it.”

Erica grimaced. “Told you to wait for summer to take that class online. It’s taught by a much more lax prof who gives you PowerPoints and doesn’t just talk in front of the class for three hours with no aids.”

Maia scoffed. “I couldn’t be sure it was going to be offered in the summer. My advisor didn’t tell me until two minutes after the deadline. You know this.”

They both nodded in agreement, but she could see the pity in their eyes. And for once she truly welcomed it, because the girl was struggling hard.

Conversation stopped after that since the parents brought out dinner. And once they were seated Issac led them in prayer, which felt like more of a mini sermon since it was so long. Maia remained with her eyes open, but her head slightly bowed in respect for their moment. She would’ve felt bad about it, but the twins and Samantha were also sitting there wide eyed and ready for it to be over. They were all not nearly as religious as their parents but humored them anyway.

Once it was finished everyone moved quickly to fill their plates with food. Maia wanted to do the same but noticed that there was no plate in front of her. As she prepared to question that she saw a plate in her mother’s hand that had two large chicken breasts on it. Which made sense seeing as the protein for dinner was fish and it was well known that Maia didn’t care for it.

She went to grab the plate from her mother, but it wasn’t handed to her until it was filled with potatoes, mac n’ cheese, and asparagus. Then she set down a small bowl of gravy for Maia to use. As quick as she could Maia leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Her mother had no time to swat her away.

With the plate in front of her Maia dug in. Her drive home was long and she’d wanted to get there quickly, so she’d forgone stopping and only nibbled on a pop tart that she’d had in her workout bag. Plus, her mother’s cooking was the highlight of any day and she’d never pass up the chance to consume all that she could.

Part way through her eating Maia noticed her mother scoop more potatoes onto her own plate, which shocked and pleased her.

“Finally done with the horrible diet, mama?” she asked.

There was a pause and then a long exhale from her mother before she nodded. “Yes. It was working against me more than for me.”

Which was what Maia told her for months after she started it.

“Good. I’m glad you’re eating bigger portions, that thing was way too restrictive. Plus, you are perfectly fine and healthy,” Maia said.

Another sigh. “True, but you know the doctor wanted me to make a change. She said if I didn’t, having a baby would be harder.”

At the mention of her mother wanting another child Maia froze. It was not the first time the subject was brought up, but it still elicited the same reaction out of her. She’d grown up an only child wanting another sibling, but not when she was in her early twenties already. Of course, the adult thing was to have no hang ups about having another sibling, but she hadn’t reached that stage in life. She was selfish about her mama.

Thankfully, she wasn’t the only person at the table who felt weird about the whole trying to get pregnant thing. She and the twins had discussed the subject in length after it was brought up the first time. They weren’t fans, but for different reasons. And it was even clear that Samantha wasn’t too fond of it since she always frowned when there was the smallest mention of it.

Every kid at the table was in agreement. Which was rare.

After that the table remained silent. Everyone ate their food and didn’t speak nor look at anyone else. It wasn’t terribly awkward, but it did make Maia incredibly uncomfortable as time ticked by. She needed someone to say something.

And she wished she was more specific when she’d hoped for that.

“Oh, Maia. How’s school going? Erica and Alexander filled us in when they got here two days ago, but I was wondering about you. I'm sure it can be hard being so far from home and living all alone up there,” Samantha said.

Just like that, it started.

Maia sighed and maintained a neutral expression. “Alone? The twins literally live in the same building as me?”

“Yeah, but they at least have each other. You’re all by yourself in that big apartment of yours. So, I worry about you a little more,” she said, her tone indicating that that was a lie.

Finishing her food Maia turned and gave her a fake smile.

“It's great. Of course, things can get a bit challenging with all the classes I'm taking, but I'm getting through. The twins are there to help keep me sane and on track, along with a few other friends. How about you? School going fine?”

Silence is what she got in response and she wasn’t surprised. From the way Samantha’s eyes darted from either parent it was clear she’d hoped they’d jump in. Ask some questions or make a comment on the subject. But they both continued eating, looking up to smile every so often.

As usual Samantha’s attempt to somehow fuck with Maia was failing. One would think after years of trying to make things difficult for Maia she’d stop. Maybe get a new hobby. Or even realize that she’d never usurp her as her mother’s favorite. Her weird little obsession was tiresome to the point that sometimes even the twins would step in to shut her down. Which Maia tried to stop, but they made it clear they’d never had the closest relationship with their older sister anyway so they didn’t mind calling her out.

After a moment too long Samantha finally responded. “It's great. Being closer to home and going to the community college means I’m saving money. Plus, the home cooked meals are the best.”

That made her mother smile and mutter a quiet thank you. Sometimes she was too easy to flatter, so it took everything in Maia not to groan when she saw her soaking up Samantha’s flaccid compliment.

“There are times I wish I'd done community first, might have made things easier for me. But I'm really glad I chose to go straight into university. You’ll really enjoy it when you get there. I’m sure the twins can attest to that,” Maia said.

And despite the snark that dripped from her words, Maia had no beef with people who went to community college first. It was a smart idea, especially if you didn’t want to pay that much money for school or couldn’t afford it. Hell, the twins almost went that route but got enough scholarship money that they chose to forgo it.

However, Maia wouldn’t pass up the chance to make a dig at Samantha. Especially when she knew how much she resented the twins for being able to afford to go without needing much outside help.

Finally, a parent stepped into the conversation.

“I was thinking one of you three could take Samantha on tour up there. I'm sure it would be better than any campus sanctioned one, though she can still do that one as well,” Issac said.

“That’s a great idea. You can show her the real stuff. Not just the boring areas those admissions people think excite perspective students. Maia, you’ve been there the longest I’m sure you’re more acquainted,” her mother added in.

All three of them looked at each other with thinly veiled distaste, which had Samantha smiling a little. It made the urge to say no strong, but she enjoyed pleasing her mother.

“Sure, just let us know.”

The twins merely mumbled their agreement.

From there the conversation dissolved and her mother collected all the plates. Maia just sat and allowed her to do it all herself, learning over time that it was best to let her handle it herself. She’d never allow anyone to clean them anyway. The kitchen was her domain and no one had ever washed a dish or the space to her standard so she allowed none of them to try.

It meant one less thing she had to clean as a kid, so she was fine with it.

Several minutes after everything was off the table mother returned with plates of apple pie. The smell filled the dining room and had Maia’s mouthwatering. Everyone received a plate, except for Maia and then she was back in the kitchen. The next time she came out everyone got a bowl of ice cream, including Maia.

Without hesitation they all dug in and Maia watched them enjoy their dessert. Apple pie was something she wasn’t fond of, so she didn’t partake in eating it. Well, she didn’t in the way they did at least.

After a minute or two her mother passed a plate that was filled with the crust of the pie. Despite her dislike she enjoyed that part of it and her mother only liked the filling, so it was the perfect situation. It drove Lucifer up the wall when they’d deconstruct it and pass what they didn’t want to one another.

While the kids ate their dessert, the parents had a small conversation that Maia was in no way interested in. In fact, at some point she’d pulled out her phone and started texting someone on and off. As well as showing her mother all the cute dog videos that crossed her social media.

The evening reached such a peaceful point, but naturally peace couldn’t last.

Samantha was back at it. “So, we've heard so much about these friends of yours, any love interests? The twins speak of dates every so often, but we don’t hear much from you. I'm sure a girl as pretty as you has a few gentleman callers.”

It was moments like that that Maia wished she could unleash herself on the girl. Not physically, because she never pushed her that far nor was she worthy of that. She just wanted to be able to drag her like she needed to be dragged. But her mother was a factor and she didn’t want her to be upset. The one time she’d been close to snapping she told her to calm down and scolded her. A repeat of that wasn’t what she wanted.

There was also the factor of the subject being of interest to her mother. Though she never pushed for Maia to date it was something she’d hope would happen. There were times she told her that going through these large milestones in life with someone by her side would be good for her. It wasn’t bad, so Maia never had the heart to tell there were still some unresolved feelings from her last relationship. She’d never wanted to admit that and her mom was in love with her and Yoongi being together. The woman shipped it more than Maia did. And she’d been devastated when they broke up.

There was also the fact that Yoongi was in her life again, and though they were better she didn’t want to give her hope to cling to.

Maia shook her head. “Nope. I’m focused on my studies and enjoying life.”

Samantha barely suppressed an eye roll. “Well, don't let studies keep you too caught up or all the good ones will be taken.”

“I’m sure that her mate will be called to her at just the right time. God works at the pace He feels is right,” Issac said as he excused himself from the table.

It took all of Maia’s self-control to not laugh and tell him how wrong he was. There was no part of her life that He played a role in and there never would be, especially after she’d made her allegiance clear. She could show up at heaven’s gates on her knees and begging, but she’d either be physically kicked out or smited. And unlike her father Maia knew she wouldn’t survive a smiting.

“Speaking of God, you should join us for church tomorrow. It's a special event and after that we'll be holding a lunch here at the house. Nice time to mingle with people, maybe even make some unexpected connections,” her mother said.

It was the perfect segue and from the way she smirked Maia knew she was proud of herself for it too. It was like she’d cornered her and knew it.

“Of course, mama. I'll set enough alarms to ensure I wake up for this.”

Though Maia smiled and everything about her body language screamed genuine happiness, she mentally prepared for a horrible time. The people were one thing and she handled them well, but the pain she’d encounter was another thing. It dulled some when she’d separated from her father, but she was sure that it would be ramped up since taking up her training again.

A million needles in her skin wasn’t something she looked forward to, but it wasn’t like she could claim she had coursework to do. And Lucifer was no longer there to give excuses on why she had to miss church with him.

It was moments like that she wished she was more apathetic about her mother’s want for her to go to church. But she couldn’t help but endure to see that smile on her face when she did.

Sighing, Maia polished off the last of her root beer and stood up from the table.

“Well, I'm going to go get set up in my room and then rest. This week off will be good for my sleep.”

Maia placed a kiss to her mother’s forehead and then headed out. Before she ventured down the stairs, she grabbed her duffle bag full of stuff.

Once down there she unpacked a little and showered, feeling icky from her drive and wanting a moment or two to collect herself. Wrapping that up she got dressed and ventured back out into her room, only to jump and knock over a vase when she saw a person sitting on her bed.

“What the actual fuck?” she whisper yelled as she put the vase back on the table.

Yoongi rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like you didn’t sense me here.”

Maia huffed. “I was a little distracted.”

“Yeah. You were really giving ‘I Will Always Love You’ your all.”

Maia fought the urge to find something to throw at him and thanked the universe her bedroom was in the basement. No one really heard much from down there and if they did it was always too muffled to be clear.

“Whatever. Why are you here?”

“You didn’t respond to my last text.”

Maia rolled her eyes and shooed him off the bed so that she could move pillows out of the way and adjust the sheets. “I was in the middle of something.”

“Okay, but I still need a response to my question.”

“Which was?”

“Miss me?”

That made Maia turn around to look at him. He leaned against her desk with a smirk playing on his lips. Of course, he came to harass her as he always did. The man needed a hobby or something.

She shrugged. “Not really.”

But with the way her lips quirked up it was clear that she was lying. Yoongi didn’t call her on it though, just tackled her onto the bed.


	10. Chapter 10

For over an hour after church Maia was forced to stand in the front yard and socialize. The intimate lunch that her mother was having yielded more people than she’d thought, and definitely more than the word intimate stood for. And it drained her before they even got to the eating.

Spending all morning in church where she was near tears because of pain and then having to hold a conversation she didn’t care for wasn’t her idea of a good time. Even with the mental preparation for both she wasn’t truly ready for how bad it would be. But she knew that it was in her best interest to not hide away in her room all afternoon, so she maintained a small smile and talked to the attendees.

Though, as she stood in a circle of people there wasn’t much talking done by her. By any of them really, because Olivia Mathis was the one doing all of it. She’d cornered them as they made small talk and walking away while she went on and on was rude. Not that Maia cared about being rude as she had to listen to the girl recount her whirlwind love story, but her mother did, and she’d already glared at her once.

So, she - and everyone else - suffered through it.

Sickly sweet, annoying Olivia needed everyone to know about how in her first weeks of classes she’d met an elusive, handsome, financially stable Christian boy and got him to commit. Plus, the newest of the news, which was they were engaged and planned to get married in a year or two after he finished his schooling to become a preacher. And like good for her, Henry wasn’t a trash human, but no one needed to hear about every detail of their courting. Especially not for the eleventh time.

“So, Maia have you found yourself a God-fearing man up at that school of yours? I’m sure there’s someone up there that’s caught your eye,” Olivia said, a smirk forming on her lips.

That made Maia wish she’d kept rambling on. Being included in the conversation solely to talk about her non-existent love life was tiresome. They all knew the answer and either used it as a segue to introduce her to someone or to have something to gossip about later. Olivia clearly went for the latter, though Maia was sure she also just wanted to feel superior since she’d “struck gold” with Henry.

It was Maia’s cue to get the hell outta dodge.

Pasting on her fakest smile, Maia said, “No. I’ve had my attention focused elsewhere, so even if there was someone I’d probably not have noticed. Maybe one day, just not now. But do tell Henry that I’m rooting for him as he continues his path towards the pulpit.”

With that she walked away from the circle, leaving the others to also make their escape or be forced to continue dealing with Olivia.

Her exit from that group drew the attention of other little clusters, all of whom tried to flag her down. Needing a break Maia pretended not to see them and kept her focus on where her mother stood on the steps of the porch by herself. She too was talking to someone, but they parted as Maia walked up.

Once by her side Maia clung to her arm and leaned her head down to rest on her shoulder. It was a bit uncomfortable, but she had a goal and being affectionate was a means to that goal.

“Why must I do this? Can’t I go relax in my room?” she whined.

At that her mother laughed, which had Maia standing up straight and pouting at her. “They’re not that bad, Mai. And you should know better than to get close to that Olivia girl. You know she’ll talk up a storm and judge your fashion choices all at the same time.”

That last bit made Maia glance down at the olive-green sundress she’d chosen to wear. It was just sitting in her closet untouched and she thought it complimented her skin well. For a moment she second guessed that, but then realized she was being ridiculous and looked good in the dress.

Maia sighed. “Well, the girl just slipped into the group and it seemed rude to just walk away. Unless I'm allowed to just walk away from people now? Am I?”

At that her mother rolled her eyes and forced Maia to stop clinging to her. “No. Lunch is almost ready and after that you’re free. Now go socialize some more. It will be good to get better people skills.”

Before Maia could say anything in response her mother was already up the steps and back into the house. It left Maia unprotected and before she knew it someone linked their arm with hers and was guiding her somewhere.

It took a second to register that it was Mrs. Murry who’d snatched her up. She’d known the woman for a few years, and she was sweet as can be, but also talked a mile a minute. Maia never minded much because despite wanting to escape she enjoyed hearing her talk so enthusiastically about one thing or another. Her happiness was nearly contagious.

There was one real con to her though. Every time she saw Maia there was an attempt to set her up with someone. Mrs. Murry tended to back off when she noticed that Maia wasn’t really feeling the person she was talking up or introducing her to, but she never caught on that it wasn’t the people who were the problem. Maia just didn’t want to be set up at all.

After they did a lap around the yard, they headed towards a group of men who Maia was sure were the whole point of their little walk. Once there they stopped Mrs. Murry pulled away and hugged all them, who rolled their eyes but returned it genuinely.

“Maia, these are my sons. Evan, Jason, Quincy and Malcolm. They’re usually scattered around the country at school, making their mama proud,” she gushed.

There was a little sniffle as she said that last part and it almost made Maia awe out loud. Almost.

Offering a smile Maia shook all their hands. “Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm glad you could join us for lunch this afternoon.”

“Speaking of, let me go see if your mother needs any help. Y’all discuss your studies and get acquainted.” And she was gone before anyone could even acknowledge her words.

Not wanting to deal with anyone else and with time to kill Maia engaged in conversation with the boys. They did most of the talking, but no one hogged the spotlight. None of them flirted with her either, which she was grateful for. Just conversations about college life and life in general. It was one of the nicest talks she’d had in a while.

Several minutes in the closing of a car door drew her attention away from them and she watched as the twins got out of the car with their father. He was the only one carrying anything despite them saying that he’d need them to help. Of course, it was just their momentary escape plan that left Maia all alone.

When they spotted Maia, they walked her way, smiles on their faces as if they hadn’t betrayed her.

“Hello, everyone,” Erica said.

While the boys greeted them and introduced themselves Maia remained silent. Even when Alex poked her side repeatedly to get her to say something. She was rightfully pissy with him, so she decided he could poke all he wanted. Though she swore if he kept it up for too long, she’d break his finger.

“Oh, come on Maia, you can’t be that upset,” Alex whined.

Maia turned her head and glared at him. “I had to listen to Olivia go on and on for twenty minutes.”

At that Alex’s eyes widened and he immediately apologized. “My bad.”

“Yeah, your bad.”

Despite the front Maia put on she wasn’t that upset with them. In all honesty she was more annoyed that she didn’t think of volunteering to go first. Her going to get whatever it was her mother needed would’ve been better than Issac going. But when she’d gone to offer that her mother fixed her with a look, and she’d chosen to remain silent.

Minutes went by and she felt more at ease with conversation and stopped giving the twins the cold shoulder. However, of course her moments of peace didn’t last.

“Maia, is this where you’ve been hiding? And you two are back already?” Samantha asked as she appeared out of nowhere with Olivia and two other girls.

After suppressing an eye roll, Maia introduced the boys. “Hi guys. I’m sure you know the Murrys.”

“Yes. We met when they came for the last Sunday lunch. How have you boys been? Staying out of trouble?” Samantha said as she squeezed between Malcom and Jason, her hand moving to rest on Malcom’s arm.

They all mumbled a series of answers, and it became clear they weren’t a fan of everyone who’d joined the conversation. Especially Samantha. Malcom was squirming and clearly wanted to yank his arm free, but instead went for a much kinder approach with gently pushing her hand away. Poor boy had much more control than Maia did, which made her feel bad for all of them.

Thankfully there was another interruption. A group of girls strolled up and joined their circle with a much gentler approach and began talking with the boys. It was clear that Samantha was displeased with the additions but said nothing about it and just kept injecting herself into the conversation.

But Maia’s attention wasn’t on her much. Instead, she’d found herself watching the one fallen amongst them. She’d seen her around for a couple years and after watching her wither in pain for a year Maia finally worked up the nerve to reveal herself and ask why she sat through it. There was a struggle for several moments, but she told her despite the path she was on somehow she always ended up in church on Sunday. Couldn’t stop it. Maia hated watching her torture herself, but she was set on going so who was she to stop her.

When she noticed Maia staring at her she winked and tilted her head, which Maia took as her chance to exit. Backing away slowly she smiled at her.

Just as she and the twins were going to finally turn and walk away a scream rang out. Maia whipped around to see what it was about and saw her mother standing their shaking and a bowl of salad on the ground. Once Maia followed her gaze to the cause a series of fucks left her mouth.

“Hi Anise,” Lucifer said.

The idiot stood awkwardly on the sidewalk; hand raised in a wave. His form was the one he’d always worn in front of her mother. A brown skin man, with a bald head, a kind face, and glasses. He enjoyed making himself seem as normal and unsuspecting as possible.

“You... you bastard. How dare you show up here? Here to try and ruin my life again, huh? You horrible, evil, devil of a man!” Her mother screamed while throwing the rolls in the basket Mrs. Murry was holding at him.

The man was a large target, so she hit him every time; not that he tried to dodge them. In truth Maia found it funny, but not nearly enough to laugh or actually be amused. Her mother was having a breakdown triggered by him and she needed to stop it.

In three quick strides Maia blocked her mother’s path, making Lucifer disappear from her site. Grasping the hand that was readying another roll to throw she stared into her eyes. It took a few seconds, but when she registered who was standing in front of her she began to calm down.

“You don’t have to worry about this, mama. How about you go inside and relax while I take care of this?” Maia said gently.

For a moment she feared that her mom would ignore her, and she’d have to influence her to do so, but she seemed to pull it together.

“You are the only blessing that man ever gave me. So untouched by his evil.”

After that Issac swooped in and carefully led her back into the house. That left Maia with her father and everyone who was standing outside. She wanted to make them simply forget, but she couldn’t do that when Issac and her mother would still know. A modification is what would be needed.

Maia turned to the twins and directed them to the house. When they caught on, they made their way inside without question.

With them gone Maia turned her attention to everyone else. Closing her eyes, she felt herself reach out to everyone’s mind and when she opened them, they were all staring off into the distance like zombies.

“What you saw here today was Anise having a small panic attack. It was triggered by preexisting stress and her being overwhelmed because lunch was taking longer than it needed to. Once you all saw that, you thought it best to pitch in to get things going and not speak of it ever again. Not mentioning it ever, to anyone, not even her. You will continue with care and enjoy the lunch. Now go inside.”

A second of pause and then all of them snapped out of it, walking into the house while talking about everything but what happened. When they were all gone Maia whirled around to face Lucifer. Before he could say a word, she stormed towards him and dragged him by the arm down the block. Despite what she’d done there was a chance someone could come out and hear the conversation.

Pleased with the distance she stopped and glared at him. “What the fuck are you doing here? Seriously what were you thinking? You know how she feels. How you made her feel!”

“I didn't think it was that bad or I would have tried harder to get a hold of you a different way. You've been avoiding any sort of contact with me for a few days and I needed to speak to you.” He had the decency to look remorseful.

Maia didn’t care much about that though. She had a whole situation to deal with and taking the time to acknowledge his regrets wasn’t on the agenda.

“And you couldn't have told Avery to come or get a hold of me? Even the twins could have. You knew I was avoiding talking to you around her, you just wanted to get a damn reaction from her,” she said.

Lucifer sighed, running a hand over his face. “I didn’t. But regardless of how you feel or her, there is something very pressing that I thought best I told you myself. That husband of hers is near saint, the man serves Him unflinchingly and any sin he's done has been repented for ten times over.”

“Yes, I know Issac is creepy perfect. He's the opposite of you, so what's your point?” Her patience wore thin.

“He's marked, Maia. The man will be made angel upon his death. With that type of record, he'll be trained for a big role too.”

That made Maia freeze, her brain struggling to process the words.

“No,” she said hoarsely. “Please no.”

Another sigh from Lucifer. “You know I'd never wish this on you. I know the love you hold for your mother. It seemed best you know early on, so you're more cautious when around him or her. They'll be watching him like a hawk and making sure you or anyone else doesn't come to taint him.”

Panic filled Maia’s chest the more it sank in. Issac being marked was the last thing she needed. Visiting her mother wasn’t something she did often enough anyway but having to maybe see her less because of twenty-four seven angel activity was another thing. Angels watched over their marked closely. Always making sure they were still on the right path and that no fallen came in to taint their future brethren. They’d be extra alert with her around, trying to make sure they didn’t lose an angel before they truly got them.

Lucifer squeezing her shoulder is what brought Maia out of her own head. There was an apologetic look in his eyes and something else, but it was gone before she could decipher it.

“When his name came to me, I was ready to send someone here to get started on corruption. It's been the first name to come through in a few months. But I knew this would put your mother at risk, put you at risk. You only can forgive me so much when it comes to what I've done to her. We're already at odds because what I've done to you. I don't want you hating me for eternity Maia. I may be the devil and considered evil, but that doesn't rid me of the want to be loved by my child.”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Maia’s forehead, squeezed her shoulder one more time, and then walked away. Maia was left to collect herself after the bomb he dropped in her lap.

###

Maia used the excuse of the twin’s bedrooms being upstairs to walk past her mother’s room. She knew only Issac was inside, so she pushed open the door and walked right in. He was surprised to see her, but before a word could be uttered his expression blanked.

Needing to work fast she whispered the words, “What happened earlier was merely a panic attack caused by stress. You will continue to comfort Anise for a few days to make sure she’s okay, but you will avoid going into detail in case it triggers her. That’s all.”

Once he’d nodded, she left the room and he regained control of himself. He’d probably be a little lost for a few seconds, but other than what she’d said nothing else about him would change.

That left one more.

After saying good night to the twins Maia headed downstairs to her room, where her mother was reclined and watching the TV with a few snacks on hand. They’d planned for a movie night with just the two of them and her mother wanted to still do it even after the day she’d had. Of course, Maia obliged.

Stealing a licorice from her mother’s hand Maia took a seat next to her and was punched in the arm immediately for her thievery. All she did was smile and eat the thing, easily falling into what their movie nights usually were like. Arguing about a movie for five minutes and then rewatching their favorite anime, Hellsing Ultimate, together. Despite her very Christian ways, her mother enjoyed a good violent show.

They were about four episodes in when she realized her mother checked out a little. She couldn’t tell if it was her thoughts drifting or sleep getting to her.

“You okay, mama?” Maia asked.

That snapped her out of it and Maia was thankful that the dazed look was more of how she appeared when tired.

“Mhm, I’m much better. I’m just getting sleepy. Thank you for holding down the fort while I was out of commission by the way.”

“It’s no problem, you needed your rest.”

Her mother nodded, but then she was all spacy again. Though that time her eyes at least fluttered closed so Maia wasn’t worried about what could be going on in her head.

Carefully, she got out of the bed and took the snacks with her. Maia put everything away in the kitchen and by the time she came back down her mother was lying underneath her covers knocked out.

The perfect time.

Maia crawled onto the bed, careful not to disturb her, and grasped her mother’s hand. Her eyes fluttered closed and she put all her focus into the task since using influence on someone unconscious was harder to do.

Once she felt connected, she spoke the words.

“Today was a panic attack because you’ve been under stress with work and the lunch wasn’t moving along like you’d planned. Nothing more. In your overwhelmed state you needed to take a break and that’s why Maia ended up taking charge of things. That’s it.”

A second passed and then there was a nod of the head from her, which freaked out Maia because she knew she wasn’t awake. But she wasn’t done yet. There was something she had to fix. Something that was meant to be fixed years before.

Taking a deep breath Maia felt positivity radiate from her, nothing but peaceful and kind vibes. Once that filled the room there was some negativity worked in, but none of it was hatred. It was more of a dislike.

“You don’t loathe your ex-husband, Marcus Fell. You aren’t fond of him and you continue to not speak about him, but there is no hate. No strong feeling of displeasure in his presence. Just a nonchalant reaction to him mixed with mild annoyance.”

Maia’s eyes opened when she finished talking and she watched her mother nod again.

“Marcus is such an ass,” she mumbled in her sleep.

The laugh that escaped Maia was involuntary and a little too loud, but it was just too funny to hear her mother say that. And at the same time a relief to have her saying something about him that didn’t sound like unhealthy levels of hatred and distress.

With that done she too got under the blanket and snuggled into its warmth. Hellsing was very low in the background so her mind didn’t wander somewhere else while she tried to sleep. Being plagued with guilt for altering her mother in any way just wasn’t something she could deal with on top of everything else. So, she’d escape it by listening to Alucard enjoy himself in battle.


	11. Chapter 11

“With all that being said I pass the baton over to Maia. She’ll brief you all on tonight’s plans and then lead everyone. Give her your respect and your dedication to our mission. I want you all at one hundred percent and nothing less,” Lilith said as she retook her seat.

Once she was settled Maia stood up and drew everyone’s attention. “For the past few weeks, we've been stirring trouble between the Kings and Saints, who are already teetering on the brink of a war. It’s a simple operation and doesn’t have a whole lot of moving parts. And what makes it simple is that there is no need to just rush in guns blazing. Especially since they do most of the work themselves. So tonight, will be quick. Get in and get out, four people to ignite everything and a few watching in the shadows just in case something does go down. We’re not trying to be too crazy.”

Part way through her little speech some of the people stop paying attention. It wasn’t obvious and they didn’t outright ignore her, but she could tell that they didn’t give a fuck what she had to say. It didn’t stop her from continuing though. They could be dick bags all they wanted and when they messed up because they missed something, they’d get their asses handed to them.

So, Maia kept going and she didn’t stop until she finished going through the plan as a means to ensure everyone understood everything.

“Are there any questions? I know this is a cakewalk, but we all need to be on the same page and I’d rather you ask something obvious then be confused,” she said.

One hand went up.

“Go ahead.”

The newer fallen, Kevin, cleared his throat. “Um, I know you just told us what you’re looking for, but I was just wondering if you wanted us to go in and actively harass them or just simply make ourselves known to them and let the tension build? Either is fine, I just feel like if we let the tension build it could create more animosity between the two gangs. The Kings would grow aggravated by the Saints presence and then even more so if they had the nerve to disrespect them.”

He had a point. Though the goal was to get in and out, they couldn’t just appear, fuck shit up, and leave. There needed to be something more to set them off. They had to know that it wasn’t just some random thing and see a few more signs of their rival gangs’ presence.

Maia smiled at Kevin. “You’re not wrong. How about you and someone of your choosing go drive down their street and make sure you make it clear who you’re supposed to be? Someone will see you, but they probably won’t do anything drastic. When you’re done, you’ll go to your posts to help keep an eye on things.”

When Kevin nodded and appeared satisfied with her answer Maia’s attention flitted around the room. She made sure to make eye contact with everyone and threw in an extra glare for those who’d chosen to disrespect her earlier. Her eyes may have gone black and there may have been a spark of fire to strike fear into them, but nothing too crazy. But just as her gaze met the last person a throat clearing pulled her attention.

It was the main jerk who’d started whispering with his friend when she started talking, Seth, she thought his name was. He looked like your stereotypical white frat boy and was a pain in her side. Always having something to say or whisper behind her back.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Why do we need you hanging around while we're doing this? We're all grown-ups and can pull this off without you there. Not like we need more people to watch our back,” he asked.

There was this smug look on his face, and it made it even more punchable, but she refrained. Something as small as him sassing her didn’t warrant a violent show of dominance. That would be for another time.

“How about you do your job right and I’ll never have to babysit your ass again? Think you’re capable of that, Seth? Or better yet, do all of you think you’re capable of that?”

With every word she looked at all the people who liked to try her, but they refused to meet her eyes. It was hilarious seeing as she was smiling, and her expression lacked any sort of animosity.

There was no verbal response, but she got nods from all of them. Even Seth, he’d also started avoiding her gaze, but that smug expression was still in place. She’d wipe it off another time.

With that out of the way she turned her focus to the rest of the room. “Excellent. You’re dismissed. You know where to be and when, don’t be late. And Kevin take a car and leave in the next five minutes please.”

Despite her dismissing all of them she was the first to leave the room. It was hot in there and she could feel the sweat forming at her hairline. Maia made a beeline for the small kitchen area they had and snatched an unopened bottle of water from the fridge. She downed half of it before acknowledging Lilith, who followed her there.

“You did good in there, Maia. You told them what you wanted in the clearest of terms, you didn’t make a fuss when given another note on how things should go and easily implemented it, plus you handled Seth without acting aggressively. You’re progressing wonderfully. Remember to come back here for debriefing, okay?” Lilith said.

Maia nodded and after patting her shoulder Lilith left her alone. The urge to wipe it off was strong, but she was an adult and not a child thinking her hand could remove cooties or something.

Needing a moment to herself before things went down Maia found a quiet little corner in a room anyone hardly ever entered. She messed around with her phone and avoided thinking about the message. If she went over the details for too long, she second guessed or found problems that weren’t really problems. There was no time to try and redo her whole plan and definitely no way to say she changed it without tarnishing her perceived ability to lead. So, distractions were the key.

About half an hour after there was a knock on the door and Yoongi peaked his head into the room. “They’re ready for you.”

Maia nodded and rose from her seat, taking a deep breath before following Yoongi out of the room and the building. Everyone needed for the mission was huddled together in the back.

A clap of Maia’s hands got their attention. “Okay, guys let’s get out here and get it done. Sooner it’s over, the sooner we can continue on with our lives for the night.”

They’d already gone over everything so there was no need to say any more than that, so she went to turn to Yoongi, but then she heard what sounded like “incompetent child” whispered.

After taking a breath she turned back around, and her eyes landed on Seth who was talking with some of his little friends.

“What was that?” Maia asked.

He tried to play it off, flashing her an innocent smile. “Oh nothing, just chatting.”

That wasn’t what he was doing, and everyone knew it. The little shit was trying to start something and though she was committed to keeping a level head he kept poking at her. Annoyance turned into anger very quickly, but she kept it under control. Or at least tried to.

“See, I don’t give a flying fuck if you don’t like me or have some weird one-sided beef with me. However, I’m not going to sit here while you keep on with this BS when we’re in the middle of a mission. Nor will I stan for you sitting there and constantly trying to talk shit and thus undermine me,” she said.

Seth either didn’t notice the underlying tension or simply didn’t care.

“Feeling hurt little one? If you can't handle this, you could just run off again and let us do all the work. I mean it would make total sense if this was too much for yo...”

Before either of them knew it, Maia pulled one of her scimitars from the shadows, traversed the distance between them, and plunged the blade into his stomach. As he tried to say the last word all that would come out was a series of coughs.

“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you,” she whispered in his ear.

Again, there was nothing. Just some coughs and gasps for air.

“Aw, I guess the cat has your tongue. Now, as I said I don't have time to deal with your crap, but I will make time if I need to. I’ll tear you limb from limb, making sure you feel every single bit of it. Hell, I’ll find just the right poison, the kind that slowly ramps up the pain and keeps you alive and awake, so you don’t miss a beat. Try me again and I will not hesitate,” she said loud enough for all to hear.

Moving back a little she forced his eyes on her. “Do we have an understanding?”

He didn’t respond right away so she pulled the blade out a little and then rammed it back in. That got him to nod frantically in agreement.

“Good.”

And with that she pulled the sword free, making sure to twist it a little as she did. As she stepped back Seth dropped to his knees and then his body crumbled to the ground completely.

No longer needing the sword she dropped it back into the shadows and turned so she was looking at everyone with a wide smile on her face.

“Now that point has been made clear, it’s time to get down to business. Also find someone to replace him, please.”

They all agreed quickly and dispersed. Most went through the shadows to their posts, leaving poor Seth on the ground to collect himself. Maia didn’t spare him a single glance as she also went to leave, though she did look at Yoongi who shook his head at her but smiled, nonetheless.

When Maia emerged from the shadows, she was on the roof of a building not too far from where things would go down. It gave her a perfect view of her people and kept her hidden without the need to call onto shadows.

From what she saw her four fallen were in place and ready to go. And the Kings she saw loitering around in the distance appeared to be on alert. The little drive through definitely riled them up. That was perfect.

“Em, I need you to make your way closer to everyone. I need your best withdrawn addict act, but don’t overdo it. There isn’t a need to be overtly frantic,” Maia said.

Emery, who’d been standing just to the side of Maia, disappeared into the shadows, and reemerged from an alley. Maia watched her move towards where the others loitered about. A minute or so later she was up close to them and that drew the attention of the Kings already staring at the fallen.

The gang members didn’t say or do anything, but they kept their focus on the cluster of people. The longer they talked the more they let their guard down, which was so stupid of them. Of course, her people looked as if they were posing no physical threat, but that didn’t mean anything. And even without the physical threat unfamiliar people standing on the corner of what should be your territory is enough to warrant questioning them. If she hadn’t seen how other factions of the Kings worked, she’d be disappointed in the gang overall.

A few minutes passed and then a baggy was pulled out of Xavier’s pocket and dangled in front of Em’s face. Though her expression showed that she wanted it there was no erratic or aggressive behavior. Maia was proud of how she played the role. Not all addicts were one size fits all and her portraying the ones you typically find on TV didn’t set well with Maia.

That should have set off the gang members, but still they did nothing. They just watched in shock as someone openly sold on their block and didn’t dare attempt to approach the boys until Em was out of sight and back at Maia’s side.

They really were a disappointing bunch.

As they finally made their way to the boys, they did so in a group of six. Obviously, they wanted to look tough because outnumbering them wasn’t enough. Once a few feet from the fallen they created a half circle around them, fists balled, hands under shirts, and arms crossed.

It was comical. Especially because the odds were not in their favor despite their numbers.

“I know damn well that you know this isn’t your territory, Saint. Yet here you are not only standing in it, but you have the nerve to push on our corners,” their leader, Dom, said.

He was the brother of someone in the higher ranks of a different faction of the Kings. It was the only reason he held the position in the first place, because he truly wasn’t cut out for the job. While built like someone who could fuck everybody up, he wasn’t eager to jump into action. Of course, over time he’d gotten better about it, but by then it was too late to get his lackeys to do the same. Their hesitance got them in trouble a lot.

“Oh, you mean here? Nah, this is where we've been selling for over two weeks. This is neutral ground and the way we’ve been working it’s basically Saint territory at this point,” AJ said.

He was usually a quiet and laid-back guy. He didn’t do a whole lot nor typically show the aggressive side of him. It was interesting to watch him change up his entire demeanor to something more arrogant and vocal.

Dom scoffed at that. “This has been claimed as King territory for months now, so you can cut the bullshit. And what do you mean for over two weeks? If you'd been on my corner I would have known by now.”

For a moment Maia feared they hadn’t maintained their presence or just hadn’t been loud enough in the weeks leading up to that moment. She’d made sure they made the rounds every day and popped up when there would be Kings out on the lookout. Had they messed up or were the Kings really that oblivious?

Her question was answered in seconds.

Two of the men backing up Dom started to fidget and that drew everyone’s attention. Dom turned around to face them, leaving himself open if an attack was imminent. He stared them both down which made them squirm more. They both refused to look at him but did glance at each other.

“You have somethin’ to say?” Dom asked, though it sounded like more of a demand.

They just stared at each other for a long few seconds, but then one finally cracked.

“We... we saw a few guys over there and thought nothing of it. They weren’t in Saint colors, so we thought they were just hanging out there. We didn’t see any dealing though, just them standing there,” he mumbled.

The tension shifted in an instant. Dom and everyone’s focus were on the two idiots who’d failed to inform their superiors. They were shaking in their boots.

“You saw people on our corners and didn’t think to approach them or tell someone about it?” Dom was pissed.

“It was a mistake,” the other said.

Immediately Dom reached over and smacked him upside the head. “Damn right it was a mistake. How could you sit here and let them think they run shit over here? This is King land. We run shit here and we’ll keep running it.”

Even though it was amusing to watch them fight amongst themselves, they needed to get back on course. Maia prepared to relay that via comms, but then a plot twist occurred.

A humorless laugh escaped one of the two more serious men amongst the group. A smirk formed on his lips and though he appeared to push it down, after several seconds he just gave into it.

Dom whipped around. “Is something funny?”

The man pushed through the others and stood in Dom’s face, completely unphased by the way his fists balled up.

“Yeah. It’s funny you think you could do anything. Saints run this city, you're just some tiny group who we let think has their hand in it all,” he said while wearing a shit eating grin.

“We?” Dom asked.

“Yeah, we. You thought you were just out here with no Saints in your ranks? You're not strong enough to pull this many recruits, man.” The other man came forward and got in Dom’s face.

That was all it took for them to completely forget about her people. And it was all it took for her plan to no longer need to continue. The true Saints were already in the mist of their own and because they could be cocky as hell of course their members revealed themselves before they should have.

That was a wrap.

“Okay, well that took a turn. Everyone he…”

Before Maia could finish her sentence, nausea hit her. At the same time, she noted a pair of wings descending towards a building that held a fallen lookout. A newbie fallen lookout.

Without a thought she was already submerged into the shadows and had a scimitar in hand. She arrived in front of the fallen just as the angel fully appeared. Their blade was already swinging down, and Maia had just enough time to thrust her own up to throw them off balance.

“Get out of here now. All of you!” she said without even turning around.

By the time the angel came back she’d pulled her other scimitar from the shadows and swung it. It connected, which Maia hadn’t expected as it was an ill-prepared strike and easily dodged. But then she saw the way the angel reacted to the pain and realized they were some newbie. They must have simply stumbled upon all the fallen and thought they should act.

Idiot.

While wrapped up in the pain the angel didn’t move back far enough. Maia took a few steps back and with a running start pushed off the roof and into the air. Before the angel could register Maia’s blade was in their chest. When Maia fell back to the ground, she maintained their connection and once her feet were planted, she sighed.

“They really ought to teach you better.”

And with that fire coursed through Maia’s body and into the blade. It ignited and she watched as the angel turned to dust. All that was left were a few stray feathers.

As Maia brushed herself off, nausea hit again, and she looked up at the sky. A few angels hovered several feet above her. One of them was very familiar to her.

With a smile Maia waved. “I thought they taught you better up there, Matthew. You really should work on your angel training. I’m just… I’m just so disappointed.”

The male sneered and charged forward, but Maia had already flipped him off and been consumed by the shadows. A smile still on her lips. Oh, how she loved encountering her former classmate.

###

Despite the mission changing drastically and having to explain the whole angel thing, the debriefing happened rather quickly. Though that probably had to do with the fact that Maia started to yawn every five seconds and it was clear that she was beyond tired. Once adrenaline faded it left her sluggish and no matter how quickly the whole angel attack was over it still got her pretty riled up.

When all was said and done everyone was dismissed. Maia lingered for a moment, but as soon as they were all gone and only Lilith, Yoongi, and her were left she took that as her chance.

However, the moment she walked towards the door Lilith had more to say.

“I’m very proud of you, Maia. You handled everything very well today. Of course, maybe stabbing Seth wasn’t the best choice but it showed everyone that you weren’t to be played with and would take action. And the way you acted with the angel was also good. Though maybe next time just come to the assistance of the fallen and don’t order people to abandon you,” she said.

Maia nodded and went to move past her, but she wasn’t done.

“Your reflexes are so much better now too. That should help with the ceremony this time around. Being able to react more quickly would definitely stop what happened from happening. Demons won’t even stan…”

Before she could finish Yoongi slapped the table and glared at her. Though clearly confused it took a single glance at Maia to see she’d fucked up. Maia’s face was distressed, but her eyes held anger. Tension filled every inch of her body as she stared Lilith down.

“Oh. Oh, no I didn’t…”

“I will be more than sure to take your pointers into consideration. I’m sure me reacting faster would have totally been my saving grace and will be the next time. How could I not think of that then,” Maia sneered.

Lilith continued to try and speak, but Maia was out of the room with Yoongi hot on her heels. She felt a weight on her chest and a fire brewing below the surface, so getting out of there was paramount.

Maia knew causing Lilith bodily harm would merely get her in trouble, so it was best that she just went home and pushed it out of her head.


	12. Chapter 12

After the day she had Maia wanted nothing more than to go home, shower, and take a moment or two to relax before she went to bed. There was so much test prep done in class and out of it that her brain felt overloaded and needed to just not function for a while. But of course, she had something to attend to which put a stop to her hopes and dreams.

Her father thought it was time for all of them to get together and go over her progress or something. They’d sit down and talk things through, then from there it would be decided if it was finally time for her to start attending to things in Hell. Of course, she wouldn’t be given much work there since she was barely starting above surface, but she’d resume attending meetings with the nine circle regents and handling other tasks.

She hated to admit it, but that excited her. She’d missed dealing with that part of everything despite the fact that the regents almost always had something slick to say. It was amusing putting them in their place or watching them get put in their place for thinking they could be condescending when speaking to her. Though with how things were with her father she wasn’t so sure that the latter was something that would happen anymore. Which wouldn’t be surprising.

Maia arrived in the throne/meeting room about ten minutes earlier than she needed to. It was supposed to be time to get her mind in the right place and decompress a little, but she realized her mistake almost instantly. The moment she emerged from the shadows Lilith was there. Of course, she was early.

All it took was one glance at the woman to be reminded of what she’d said several days before. The way she’d flippantly suggested that Maia could have done anything to save herself from what happened. It pissed Maia off, and though she thought she was mostly over it that proved not to be the case. The words just repeated in her head over and over again. And what stuck out most is how casually she said it too. As if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Leaving and coming back on time or a little late was tempting the longer she stared at Lilith, but she knew it was a waste of time. Plus, just as she gave into the thought Lilith turned around and saw her standing there.

Lilith smiled at Maia, but then once it wasn’t returned a frown overtook her lips. Her brows furrowed as if she was confused and then a light bulb went off. She rose from her seat and went to walk closer to Maia.

“Maia, look…”

Thankfully, Sama’el strolled into the room before she could say anything else. Maia also took that as her cue to walk around the woman and plop down into a seat. A large part of her wanted to take something far away from her father and Lilith, but with how many chairs there were she knew more people than she thought would be joining them. And if it was the regents it was definitely best that she sat in her usual seat, which was between her father and Lilith.

Once all three of them were in their seats silenced reigned. Even as more people filed into the room no one spoke a word, at least not aloud. The regents most definitely whispered amongst each other as they side-eyed her. It took a whole lot not to flip them all off.

In the end her saving grace was Yoongi who was the last to enter before her father. His presence would help her keep a little calmer and depending on how things went he’d stop her from doing anything too crazy. Though he would be a little out of reach. His seat was next to Sama’el since he was his right hand and because Lucifer’s generals always sat closer to him.

Though Maia's mood settled over time, as each minute ticked by that was past the time the meeting was to start, she got annoyed. She was ready to leave and almost got up to do so until her father stumbled in twenty minutes late. He mumbled several apologies and took his seat.

“Sorry, the fourth circle is a mess without it’s regent. Idiot went and got himself killed at the worst possible time,” Lucifer said.

Everyone - except Maia - brushed off his tardiness and reassured him it was fine. And with the way he glanced her way it was as if he expected it from her too, but then realized who he was dealing with. Maia had no patience for his lateness no matter what he was doing, and she’d been that way since he missed her violin recital when she was eight.

Once that moment passed, he glanced away and turned his full attention towards everyone at the table.

“This meeting shouldn’t be too long. I just need updates from everyone and then open the floor for anyone that has anything else they want to share. In about a week or two we’ll be having a much longer one so we can hammer out some things for the future. We’ll also be looking for a new forth circle regent, so have your nominations ready,” he said.

Everyone nodded but remained silent. But Maia could see the giddiness in some of them that had them almost ready to talk when it wasn’t their turn. Naturally, regent nominations meant people were putting up who they thought would work out best for them. It was a way to boost a friend or have someone they could control in place. They couldn’t get enough of the power they had and always tried to find ways to acquire more.

Idiots all of them.

But despite the distaste that filled Maia discomfort was also present. The fourth circle regent died because they came to the surface and an angel who happened to be nearby got to them. A failure to mask their power so they weren’t walking around and basically wearing a “I’m a high ranking fallen official, please come kill me” sign. Maia thought it’s what he deserved for being so stupid, but that didn’t stop the small part of her that worried about it happening again or something like it.

However, Maia wasn’t allowed to linger on the what ifs for long before her father started talking again.

“Okay. So, besides what's been happening in the process to get the sixth circle back in order, I need updates on everything. No detail spared, anything that happened needs to be put out for all of us to know. I don't care if you feel like it was insignificant or you can handle it on your own, it's better you say it here and we don't have to end up going through this again,” he said sternly.

Again, they all nodded, but not one of them offered themselves up to speak first. It was like they were in a school being asked by the teacher to answer a question no one had the answer too.

Maia had no time for it, so she got the ball rolling. “Eli, you’re up.”

The third circle regent’s head snapped up and his eyes went wide, but soon enough the shock was replaced by a glare thrown in her direction. He hated being called out, but Maia hated waiting and knew that people were more willing to talk if he did. So, he had no other choice but to suck it up.

Once Eli got all his crabbiness out of the way he started talking. There was nothing to really report, but he gave a briefing over what had been happening as of late. He also voiced how it was a little difficult trying to balance the workload of the third circle and help with the fourth. There were a few souls and demons that attempted to escape, and he was barely keeping them in place while the breach was fixed. That didn’t mean he wanted to be relieved of those duties, that was the last thing he wanted, but a request for more help was given.

That was the gist of most of the regents. After he went things kept rolling and everyone voiced what had been going on and if they were dealing with any issues. And despite how boring it could have been it was enjoyable for Maia. She’d been reminded of how much she missed it and found herself falling back into things effortlessly. Even making mental notes to check on this or that.

They all finished in record time and then Lucifer’s gaze turned in Maia’s direction.

“Lilith,” he said.

Maia forced herself to finally face the woman after doing everything but look at her the whole time.

“Things have been going well with my project. Minimal incidents and many plans for how we’re expanding and boost our activity without drawing too much attention. We’re trying our best to ensure that the angel attack that happened a few weeks ago doesn’t occur again and that if it does, we’re ready,” Lilith said.

Maia thought she was done and then she glanced her way for a moment before speaking again. “Also, Maia took her first command. She planned out, executed, and watched over a mission to ignite a gang war. Everything went smoothly, minus a moment where a rogue angel swopped in and a fallen decided to test her. Which she handled with words and then by example. I'm proud of what she's done.”

“By example?” Eli asked, his brows raised in confusion.

Maia turned so she was looking at him head on and with a smile on her face gave him the answer he wanted. “I rammed my scimitar through his chest and watched him wither in pain. It carried my message very well.”

That made Eli break eye contact immediately. The man literally looked everywhere he could that wasn’t at Maia and it brought her a little joy. That would keep him from trying her for a little while she hoped.

Muffled laughter drew Maia’s gaze to her father who pulled himself together after he saw her glance his way, though she could still see the amusement in his eyes. It made her feel a little proud of herself deep down. Like deep, deep, deep down where she felt less angry at him and enjoyed his approval of her actions.

“Well,” Lucifer cleared his throat. “next up is Sama’el. We’ve already had our meeting about other things earlier, so how are training sessions going?”

The demon’s face gave nothing away and if Maia didn’t know she was doing good nerves would have hit her.

“Things are going well; everyone is progressing at the rate expected. A few of those are exceeding expectations and are well on their way to being great warriors. I’ve supplied a list of those fallen broken up into different categories so you can see who is who,” he said while pushing a folder over to Lucifer.

Her father opened it and pulled out a sheet of paper with some names and other things on it. Because she couldn’t stop herself Maia leaned over to get a better look, but it was moved just out of sight. She huffed while Lucifer just smirked.

After a few seconds he glanced over towards her with a genuine smile. “Doing pretty damn well for a girl who's been out of commission for a while.”

There was that feeling of pride again, but that time it rose higher to the surface and she could barely suppress the smile that it caused. Keeping things cool she simply nodded.

“Just because I was away doesn’t mean I suddenly became incapable of doing the things I learned or didn’t keep up with training as best as I could,” she said with surprisingly no snark.

That made Lucifer smile more. “I’m glad.”

“She’s doing excellent, even if she’s sometimes late or misses some of the sessions.”

And just like that she was reminded why she couldn’t trust the demon to keep things on a good note.

“Which I always make up when I finish whatever I need to do or by staying much longer for the next one. Don’t I?” she said while glaring at him.

Of course, he appeared unfazed.

It was too late though. The switch was already flipped, and Lucifer was looking at her like that time she forgot to do her research paper until the day before it was due. And thankfully despite how guilty she felt then it didn’t carry over into present day.

However, even though she prepared for a scolding it didn’t come from who she thought it would.

Lilith cleared her throat and when Maia turned to glance at her she wore a disapproving frown. “These sessions are important Maia; they do not take a back seat to things you think are important. Next time reschedule whatever it is and if you can’t then it doesn’t m…”

Nope, Maia was having none of that.

“Don’t you dare say that it doesn’t matter. I have a life that I built outside of this and damn well intend to live that life. So, I don’t want to hear a single word about it,” she whispered, trying to rein in her anger.

Lucifer scoffed. “That life should not be your main focus; you should be putting your time into this. Into our cause.”

Before anyone knew it, Maia was on her feet and her chair barely managed to stay upright. Her gaze swiveled from Lilith to her father who both had wide eyes and mouths agape. And of course, there was Lilith with that look that indicated that she knew she put her foot in her mouth again.

“Don’t you dare tell me where my focus should be. I’ve chosen the path I want to be on, and I’ve made commitments that I refuse to back out of. But that does not make me any less committed to what we do. I have poured my soul into this cause. I nearly died in order to help further this cause!”

Fire danced at Maia’s fingertips and both arms raised a little, both actions something she missed until Yoongi grabbed one of them. The sudden touch brought her attention to him and he stared at her for a few seconds before speaking.

“How about we step out for a second, Mai,” he said softly.

For a moment she clearly appeared ready to ignore him, but then she remembered where she was and knew it was for the better. Taking a deep breath, she nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the room and into the hallway. They didn’t stop until they were a ways down the hall and he pulled her into an empty room.

Yoongi didn’t get to utter a word before she was talking.

“I shouldn’t do that, I know. You don’t have to say it,” she said while moving to pace in a line.

At first there was no response, but she didn’t mind. That silence allowed her time to calm down enough to not still think about upper cutting her father and Lilith with a fist full of fire. That’s when Yoongi walked over, forced her to stop pacing, and face him.

“I’m still going to say it. I know you’re angry Maia, but you have to keep it together. I completely get wanting to literally rip him a new one, hell it took several fallen to stop me from doing the same when you left. But no matter what you can’t physically lash out at either of them in front of others. And the outbursts also need to tone down a little. You can be pissed as you want behind closed doors, but not in front of regents or other fallen that are not us.”

Maia released a humorless laugh. “If they don’t want to get cussed out, they shouldn’t push my fucking buttons.”

Yoongi gave her a look that told her to stop it and so she did, though she didn’t like it.

“You know that’s not going to happen. He does it unintentionally and intentionally, nothing will change that. And Lilith… well, I don’t know what the fuck she’s doing to be honest. One moment she’s trying, the next she’s saying stupid shit. Either way you have to push it aside in situations like this,” he said.

“If only it was that easy,” she mumbled.

There was a prolonged silence which made her look up at Yoongi who was biting his lip a little and appeared a bit unsure.

“Well, you could always talk to them and just…” Maia started to object so he changed course. “Okay, I knew that wasn’t going to fly to be honest. I don’t know why the hell I tried it. But, and listen closely, you could at least try to talk to Lilith. Maybe then she’ll stop putting her foot in her mouth.”

That made Maia laugh for real. Like a loud, deep in her chest laugh. Yoongi knew what that meant so he simply shoved her shoulder a little and she stopped.

“You should truly become a comedian. You have all the jokes. Also, you trying to fight Satan? Do tell,” she said.

That made him glare at her, though it didn’t last long and soon enough his expression turned serious.

“Understood?” he asked.

“Understood.”

And with that they returned to the throne room. They were met with silence and stares, which persisted even as she got closer to the table. Yoongi threw her one more look of warning before retaking his seat.

Maia cleared her throat, not taking her seat right away. “Not sorry for the words I said, but I do apologize for the derailment of this conversation. So, it would be great if we could get back on track.”

Once her butt hit the chair, she looked to Sama’el who returned her stare with his blank expression and then went back into his whole spiel. It took about twenty minutes before he was finished and it felt like the longest twenty minutes in history, but Maia didn’t mind it too much.

“Okay, I guess that leaves Yoongi. You have anything for us?” Lucifer asked.

Everyone turned their attention to Yoongi who’s expression went as blank as his superior’s in an instant.

“Nothing that Sama’el hasn’t said regarding everything. I suppose I could say that Maia is progressing as she never left. Things have been going well and she’s taken on her responsibilities. Of course, she’s still stubborn so that’s something we have to work around at times, but it doesn’t have a major effect on her ability to get things done,” Yoongi said.

Maia’s younger self was almost always offended when Yoongi pointed out her flaws in a more official kind of setting, but over time she cared less. His assessments were never wrong, and they weren’t ever meant to be a slight towards her or a way to get her in trouble. They were honest and it was fair that he didn’t try to cover for her, even if it was for something that was relatively tiny.

With that they moved on and all the regents mentioned people they thought would be good to take over the fourth circle. Someone even brought up Yoongi’s name, but he declined that without a second thought. He said something about preferring battles to being stuck in Hell twenty-four seven.

“Okay, then. Remember that we have another meeting coming up. I cannot stress enough to get your picks narrowed down for who should take over. If you feel someone would be a good fit then submit them, training or not. You’re all free to leave,” Lucifer said.

They didn’t need to be told twice, because the moment the words left his mouth, they all filed out of the room. And Maia took that as her cue to get the hell out of there too.

But as always, they couldn’t just let her go about her life. Lilith’s hand tapped her shoulder and not wanting to be a dick with regents probably lingering outside she turned to face her.

“Yes?”

Lilith chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment and then spoke. “Do you have a moment to discuss things?”

It was a trap. Lilith was trying to corner her for not only a conversation with her, but Lucifer too, if how he hovered a few feet away was any indication.

“I have a test in a few hours with a great deal of training after. I need my rest,” Maia said.

That caused them both to frown, disappointment etched in their every feature. It made Maia feel bad for half a second, but then she shook it off. They both had a lot of time to talk, her father especially, so they could wait for her to want to talk to them about things or live with if she never wanted to again.

Not awaiting a response Maia turned around and walked right into the shadow she’d formed with Yoongi right on her heels. Despite being willing to say anything to avoid her father and Lilith she really did just plan to go to sleep.

And ignore the small part of her that said she should go back.


	13. Chapter 13

The moment that Maia’s butt hit the chair in her Monday morning class she wanted to get right back up. Honestly, she wanted to leave before she arrived and that was saying something about how unbearable the thing was.

It wasn’t like the subject matter was the problem. It was a course outside of her major that she’d taken because she was excited about it. History classes, especially those focused on wars, always intrigued her. They were taught from the perspective of how human wars began and ended. It taught a person how much of the crap that happened in their lives was created by their fellow man. Of course, some wars had to do with what transpired between heaven and hell, but humans could be more horrible than they were given credit for. Not everything they did, no matter how evil, could be blamed on the devil.

But the problem was, despite her excitement and eagerness to learn, the professor could suck the interest out of anything. He would drone on and on with no interaction with his students at all. And somehow despite how heavily covered some of the events where he’d find the one documentary that was just crappy reenactments narrated with a monotone voice that was three plus hours long.

There was nothing to look forward to.

And that distaste was amplified because she’d gotten her period just before she went to sleep the night before and was almost late for the class so there was no time to take medicine to lessen the cramps. Of course, she could have probably snatched them from the shadows or something, but she didn’t even have the energy to do that. Her body was being a major dick.

However, she wasn’t allowed the stew in her own self-pity long because after she positioned herself in the best spot to keep her cramps in check someone sat next to her. Of all the empty seats they chose there, and she was about to question them on that, but then she looked at their face.

“What are you doing here?” Maia asked.

Yoongi smirked at her. “Good morning to you too.”

“Answer the…” Before she could finish an involuntary groan escaped her, a particularly bad cramp hitting.

Her eyes fluttered closed as she tried to breathe through it, but it simply got worse. She could feel the tears prick at her eyes as it did, but thankfully thirty seconds passed, and she was back to mild discomfort.

When her eyes opened, she was met with a bottle of water opened on her small desk and Yoongi holding out his hand to her. She was going to question him, but then another, less painful cramp hit, and she took the pills and down them along with the whole bottle of water.

“Thank you,” she mumbled.

For a few minutes they sat there in silence, Maia focused on the pain calming and watching the other students enter. Yoongi did something on his phone but used his free hand to gently rub her stomach. There was a weird look here or there, but neither of them reacted to it or cared much.

Ten minutes passed before Maia finally spoke.

“Okay, as I was saying. Answer the question.”

“I wanted to get the whole college experience. Go to classes, check out the parties, cram until hours before an exam and even chase after a girl out of my league.” He winked at her as he said the last part.

It was hard to fight the urge to gag, but she decided to play his game a little.

“You wound me when you lie to me, Yoon. It hurts my heart, to think you want to hide something,” she said, faux sadness coloring her voice.

That didn’t stop the stupid grin on his face; in fact, it merely grew wider. It was mildly annoying, mostly because it made her want to smile at him. But thankfully she was still not in the best mood, so she was able to keep herself in check.

When Yoongi didn’t get a reaction from her he leaned in closer, but she didn’t even flinch.

“You know I would never want that, Mai. Your heart means too much to me to hurt it. How about you tell me what I can do to make it all better?”

Again, the urge to throw up a little presented itself, but instead Maia rolled her eyes and used her hand to push his face away from her.

“You could tell me why you’re here.”

But before a word could be uttered by him there was a commotion at the front of the room. Maia’s eyes moved there and when she saw what was going on her irritation spiked.

In front of her class stood Lilith. She wore her signature white clothing, but the attire was more business casual than usual. There was this kind smile on her lips, and she glanced around the room at every student, but avoided Maia’s gaze once she noticed she was already staring at her.

“Good Morning everyone. My apologies for running late, getting here was a tad confusing.”

As she spoke Maia turned to glare at Yoongi, who looked back at her with an apologetic expression. It didn’t help her anger with him because he could have warned her or something, but instead he wasted time being playful. And that led to her being blindsided by Lilith invading her life in a way that Maia was definitely not okay with. She wanted to scream at both of them.

“Well, I'm sure that you're all confused as to why I'm here and who I am. My name is Dr. Lila Moran and I've applied for a position at this school. Your professor, Dr. Walter, is out sick so I'm stepping in for the day. Which I know isn’t the norm in a college setting, but when the administration learned he'd be out they thought it was a good time to throw me into the ring and test out what I could do. So, I'll be taking over for the day and maybe next week if he hasn’t recovered,” she said.

Every word was laced with that annoying sunny disposition of hers and Maia hated it more than usual. Something in her wanted to wipe that smile off her face, but of course they were in a public setting and Maia did not want to have to deal with that clean-up. Or deal with the lecture her father was sure to give.

So, Maia just sat there.

For several minutes Lilith went on about this fictional life of hers. The schools she never attended. The jobs she never held. The family she had never taken the time to create. In some ways it made Maia feel bad for her, but it was not a dominant emotion by any means. Because at the end of the day her lies weren’t the main problem Maia had. It was the way that every student hung onto every word she spoke. How she was bewitching them without laying an ounce of influence. Of course, a classroom of still hormonal twenty-somethings could fall so easily.

After about ten minutes of joking and rambling she put on a video for everyone to watch via the projector. Once it was going and the lights were dimmed, she made her rounds throughout the room. As she walked up the stairs on Maia’s side, she only glanced at her for a moment before looking away. Still clearly avoiding her despite inserting herself in an environment she didn’t belong, and that Maia did not want her in.

To be honest her avoidance of Maia was what made her more annoyed than her sudden appearance did.

As she tried to keep her anger at a simmer Maia turned her head to look at Yoongi who was giving her a ‘please don’t be mad’ expression. It lowered some of her irritation at him, but it didn’t stop her from punching him in the arm - hard.

“I’m sorry okay. I didn't know you were completely out of the loop. She told me she’d talked to you about popping in at some point,” he leaned in and whispered.

That just made her punch him again.

“You know damn well she probably didn’t. Even if she had you should have brought it up to me. We were together for hours yesterday and I know this wasn’t something that just came up,” she mumbled.

“Oh no, have I started a lover’s quarrel?”

Maia was so focused on Yoongi that she hadn’t noticed when Lilith walked up. Her gaze shifted to the woman who’d suddenly reappeared at her side. No more was the nervous Lilith, in her place was the one Maia was more familiar with. That sweet smile that held underlying mischief and that twinkle in her eye that showed how much she was enjoying what she did.

Of course, some part of her liked disrupting Maia’s life. She wasn’t allowed to have nice things after all.

“You assh…” Before she could finish Maia remembered where she was. Her eyes scanned the room, but no one was paying them any attention. In fact, they weren’t aware at all. Every person’s posture was rigid and their expression blank.

Influence was at work because why not.

Despite that meaning Maia had freedom to go on like she wanted, she took a deep breath and took another approach. “Would you care to explain why you have inserted yourself into this aspect of my life? If it wasn’t clear I barely want to see you when it comes to times, I can’t avoid you, so logically this was off limits.”

There was a brief shift in Lilith’s expression, but it was gone faster than it appeared.

“Think of this as a test. I hoped you'd hold it together enough that you wouldn't just outright attack me, which you succeeded at. That was also why Yoongi is here, though I never told him his explicit purpose,” Lilith said.

Maia scoffed. “Do you find this fun? You’ve been trying to suck up to me for a while now, didya think this would help with your efforts?”

“So, there’s a chance?” Lilith mumbled.

“That’s not the point!” Maia shouted.

Pressure was applied to Maia’s abdomen suddenly and when she glanced at Yoongi he was giving her a look. Glancing down at her body she realized she’d been moving to rise from her chair. Of course, standing up meant nothing, but if she was doing it unconsciously Yoongi’s arm was the only thing stopping her from making hellfire rain.

Another deep breath and she nodded at Yoongi. Slowly, he moved his arm though it shot back out once she stood from her seat. More silent conversations were exchanged between them and he finally relented, allowing her to move out of the seat and into the aisle. Once there she stared Lilith down.

They remained like that for a minute or so. Just staring at each other, neither saying nor doing anything. It was as if they were waiting for the other to back down.

Lilith caved first.

Stepping back a little Lilith’s face became serious. “Look, Maia. All I’m here to do is to see how well you do with your influence. I knew you haven’t used it a whole lot, so we need to be sure you still have a handle on it. So that’s all you need to do, lay a little work on the room, and then relinquish it. You should be used to this kind of thing anyway. Spontaneous tests were all your father used to give you growing up.”

When Maia didn’t respond she simply shrugged and made her way back to the front of the room. Class returned to normal as students were in control of themselves and Maia was forced to sit down because she was drawing attention.

Yoongi leaned over and squeezed her thigh.

“Just do it and she’ll leave you alone for a while. You walk out of here or attack her and your father will use it as ammunition to keep these types of things happening. And at some point you know he’ll show up himself,” he whispered.

At first, she didn’t plan to give in and was going to stew in her anger. However, the longer she sat there watching Lilith lean against the prof’s desk she grew more annoyed. And that was only amplified by hearing some boys behind her whisper how they wondered if they could get with Lilith and how hot she was.

Without a word Maia rose from her seat and started shoving her notebooks into the bag. It drew everyone’s attention, including Lilith who appeared disappointed by what she was seeing. Yoongi even looked a little unhappy with her choice as she moved into the aisle.

Then it happened in an instant.

Everyone in the room went still and then all at once bolted from their seats towards Lilith. They tumbled on top of her, all clawing and swinging at her. She was buried under people and every time she gained some freedom, they took her underneath again.

It was about a minute before she stopped struggling and made them stop herself. Everyone became almost zombie-like as she shouted for them to return to their seats.

Once she was off the ground and standing straight Maia could see her jacket was ripped and her hair was sticking up every which way.

“That’s not what I meant, Maia,” she said.

Gasping Maia pressed a hand to her chest, faux shock coloring her expression.

“You asked to see my influence, right? And I delivered that for you. But it looks like you weren’t specific enough. So, accept what you get. Now I want you to have a grand day and leave me the hell alone. Thanks.”

With that Maia turned on her heel and stormed out of the lecture hall. Yoongi followed behind her, not even trying to hide the fact that he found the entire situation hilarious with the way he laughed.


	14. Chapter 14

The moment Maia closed the door to her car, her body slumped in the seat. She’d been confined to the warehouse for around six hours, training almost nonstop. If it wasn’t hand-to-hand it was with weapons, and if it wasn’t with weapons it was with fire, or sometimes even fire and weapons. And it all would be fine, if she’d been going at it with some other fallen forced to train, but of course it was the first full day of having Sama’el as her sparring partner. He was as hard as it got and according to him - and everyone else - it was best to go up against him more as she prepared to perform the ritual again.

And honestly, fuck that ritual.

Her body felt a kind of pain that no gym nut or newbie doing all the moves wrong could. Everything hurt to the point that her pain felt like it had its own pain. How she’d made it to the car she didn’t know, but her only goal at that point was getting home.

And while it would’ve been much faster if she used the shadows, she didn’t have the energy to draw them in. Not because of the physical pain, but because she felt mentally drained as well. And no matter how easy it was to move in and out, the darkness took something out of her, and she couldn’t handle it for the moment.

So, driving was the only option.

When she buckled up and got ready to pull off her phone rang. She debated not answering until she glanced at it sitting in the other seat and saw her mother’s picture lighting up the screen. Which was odd because her mother was usually handling bible study around that time and would call her after that. There was no way that she’d call her during, and they rarely canceled it.

Maia was worried, but she also knew that she could be overthinking things. It would be best for her to not jump to conclusions and get herself all worked up. So, after taking a deep breath she grabbed the phone and answered.

“Hi mama. What’s up?”

“Hi, baby. I was just calling to check on you. You okay, you sound a little out of breath?” she said.

Despite her voice mostly sounding the same something was off. There was a bit of hoarseness and Maia swore she heard a sniffle or two.

“I just finished a workout. What's wrong, mama? I know it’s something because you don’t usually call me around this time. And we both know I see through your all is well foolishness, so there is no use in trying it,” Maia said.

There was a humorless chuckle and then silence. The longer it was quiet the more unsettled Maia became.

“Mama…”

“It’s nothing. There was just some vandalism at the church,” she said.

That shocked Maia.

“What do you mean vandalism? What happened? Are you okay?” With each question her voice went up an octave.

“No, no. I’m fine. No one was here when it happened. They broke some windows, knocked down some things and left some disgusting messages. It was horrible.”

For a minute or so Maia didn’t say anything, just sat there and listened. On the other side of the phone her mother was also silent, for the most part at least. Maia could hear her sighs and sniffles. At some point she swore she heard her choking back a sob and that truly set her off.

The world was going to burn. At least that was Maia’s immediate thought. There were few people in the world she loved and felt protective of, and her mother topped that list. Upsetting her, was upsetting Maia and that was a dangerous thing to do. Hell, she’d known her father making her hate him was for the best and she still tried to take off his head with his own scythe after a week of her mother being distraught.

You did not fuck with her mother without asking to be fucked up yourself.

But she couldn’t just go on a rampage. Her mother was the most important part at the moment and she was priority.

So, she took several deep breaths to calm herself before going forward.

“Is there anything I can do, mama?” she asked.

"No, there are already volunteers here cleaning up and I'm calling around to get quotes on repairmen. I just needed to hear my baby's voice."

It pleased Maia that she sounded calmer then when she called. That helped alleviate some of the worry coursing through her, though it still went strong, but her mother didn’t need to know that.

Her mother also didn’t need to know that despite her denying that she needed Maia, she’d already started driving in the direction that would lead her to the church. It would normally take around two hours to get there, but with the way Maia was speeding it would be around an hour or so. Well, the speed and the fact that she knew a few shortcuts - that were not so legal. Either way she’d be there before her mother knew it.

“Well, you know I have all the time in the world for you, mama,” she said.

“Thank you, baby. I…” There was a voice in the background just as she went quiet and after several seconds she came back to the phone. “I have to go take care of some things, Maia. We need all the hands we can get. I’ll call you back later, okay?”

“Okay. Later. Love you.”

“Love you. Later.”

Once off the phone Maia threw it to the side and sighed. Despite her attempts to not get frustrated she couldn’t help but get all worked up. She tried to tell herself it was probably a random hit, but she knew the area her mother was in and there were no anti-Christianity or religious people for miles. And no one would come that far to vandalize nor would some teens looking for trouble do it.

Not knowing drove her up the wall and she hated it. Something felt off and she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. But she couldn’t let herself focus solely on that or she’d be not so calm when she arrived at church.

Sighing, she glanced at her phone. She picked it up and paired it with her bluetooth before dropping it back in the seat.

“Call Yoongi,” she said.

There was a brief silence before the phone repeated the words and it started ringing. It went on for so long that she thought it best to hang up, but just as she reached her hand over it stopped and there were grunts along with heavy breathing.

“Uh, hello?”

She waited several seconds but got nothing but more grunts and a scream. Though it was cause to be suspect, she knew the sound of pain well.

“Did I catch you at a bad time?” she asked.

For a few more seconds there was still nothing and then there was a loud crack followed by silence.

“I’m never too busy for you,” Yoongi said.

Maia laughed. “You sure? You sounded like you were with your side chick?”

Yoongi scoffed. “Of course not. I was just teaching some of the newer fallen how to evade angels. They suck at it to be honest. So many broken bones for the simplest mistakes.”

At that Maia winced as she imagined how they’d probably gotten cocky and he’d shown them why they shouldn’t without mercy. She could recall a few of her first spars with him where he’d almost broken something on her. He would have definitely done it if she didn’t heal slower than everyone else and needed to return home to her mother after. Explaining constant bruises was hard enough for her.

“Hey, Maia.”

She hadn’t realized she zoned out and shook her head as she refocused. “Huh?”

“I asked why you called,” Yoongi said.

“Oh, um, I was just calling to say if you plan to invade my apartment I won't be there for a few hours. My mom called distressed about someone breaking into and vandalizing the church. She says she’s fine, but I need to check on her.”

Talking about it got her worked up again, but when she saw the highway marker indicating her exit was near, she knew she needed to push it back down. She wished there was more control of her anger, but after years of bottling it up anybody could get it.

“And to find and slaughter those who made her cry. I know the angle Maia, do what you have to and don't make too much of a scene,” he said.

“Do you need me to come?” he asked, almost as if it were an afterthought.

For a moment she debated it, but then she realized what that would mean. Her mother would see him and questions about how they’d gotten back together would start. And telling her mother that they weren’t back together would be a whole ordeal she didn’t want to go through. Plus, with angels watching over her stepfather, two fallen in His place of worship could set them off in the worst way and she didn’t want or need that.

“No, it’s fine. There are probably more than enough volunteers helping clean up. I just wanted to let you know since you just like to invite yourself into my apartment.”

That immediately kickstarted a rant from him about how she never kicked him out so he couldn’t figure out why she was complaining. How he always brought food and offered to cuddle and/or massage her scalp when she was having a tiresome day. And it was just a barrage of reasons why his sudden appearances were valid and threats to just stop coming over - which she knew to be empty.

By the time he finished she was pulling up in front of the church. She was right to assume there were many people already volunteered because there were about ten outside working on the broken glass and cleaning something off the side of the building. They’d cleared enough of it up that she couldn’t even tell what it said.

“Hey. I’m here. I’ll call you later,” she said, cutting Yoongi off from another rant.

“Okay. Don’t forget to call me on your way back. We can meet somewhere so you don’t have to drive back alone,” he said.

Maia rolled her eyes at that, but still mumbled in agreement.

“Okay. Later.”

“Later.”

With that they hung up and she emerged from her car.

All eyes were on her instantly and some lingered longer than she liked. She chalked up the stares to the fact that she was disheveled and in form fitting clothing and not because it was rare she appeared at church at all. Though she didn’t miss the way one man glared at her, just as he always did when she appeared anywhere near the church. He swore she was such a tainted soul and no amount of prayer would save her. And while he was right, his judgment was hilarious seeing as he was a few sins away from being marked for Hell.

She paid none of them any mind though. Walking up the stairs she strolled into the church and went to search for her mother. Before she could truly start that search though, she ran into Issac.

His entire body screamed shock.

“Oh, Maia. I didn’t think you were coming. Your mother said she only called you a little over an hour ago.”

Maia pasted on a fake smile. “I was already in my car, so I just drove straight here to see if you guys needed anything.”

“Oh,” his entire disposition shifted to the usual way too nice one. “Well that was nice of you. I know you probably have a lot of work to do at school.”

“Yeah, I-” before she could go on a voice cut her off.

“Maia Lucille, you know good and well that you aren't to ever risk your life and the lives of others,” her mother said.

There was no shouting, but she said it was enough intensity that it felt like she’d yelled. And when Maia turned to look at her, she had the posture to back it up. Both hands were placed firmly on her hips, brow was raised - something she only did when she was preparing to kick butt.

Maia prepared for the reaction to her appearance, but no amount of preparation stopped her from feeling like a teenager still capable of being grounded. However, she knew how to get past it.

“Hi mama,” she said as she moved towards her.

“Little girl,” her mother said.

Not daring to look at her or say another word Maia leaned down and pulled her into a tight hug. At first her mother was stiff, but after a few seconds she loosened up and melted into the hug.

“I just needed to check on you,” Maia whispered.

Her mother sighed. “Thank you, baby.”

“Anything for you.”

For a minute they remained that way, until someone needed to move passed them. They pulled away and stared at each other for a moment. Maia watched her mother slowly put on a smile, though it was small and sad. At least it was something.

“Well, since you're here maybe you can help me clean up the office. They got in there and did some damage but didn't take anything which is odd.”

And just like that the smile was gone.

Maia wanted to hug her more or encourage her to let it out, but she knew that wasn’t what she needed in that moment.

“Let’s get to work then!” Maia said.

Nodding, her mother led her through the building to the back where a few small offices were placed. They were where the church handled most of its business and where they kept any money before it was taken to be deposited or donated at the end of the week.

When they stepped across the threshold her mother stiffened and once Maia got a good look at the room she could see why. Whoever came in broke most of the things in the room and they’d made sure they were thorough in doing it too. Things like small glass trinkets or flower vases were shattered to the point that not even a hobbyist would find joy in gluing them back together. And there were pamphlets ripped to shreds as if they’d taken their time.

A few of them were also burned, though nothing else was. It was odd like her mother said.

However, she didn’t stay focused on that for too long. The moment she knew what she was dealing with Maia started cleaning. Her mother joined in, but quickly stopped and moved herself out of Maia’s way. It was a wise decision and who knows why she tried to help her clean in the first place.

Once she was finished, she turned to her mother who was just staring at her in awe. “Oh, how I miss having you around to go into a cleaning frenzy, everything would be spotless by the time you'd stop.”

At that Maia couldn’t help but laugh. “The only time you could get me to clean."

“Willingly and well. We both know you know better than to not clean up after yourself, Miss Lady.”

Her mother fixed her with a pointed look and then they both broke into laughter. It was the first moment since she’d arrived that her mother appeared to not have so much weight resting on her shoulders.

When they’d both sobered up Maia glanced around trying to figure out what to do next.

“So, what else can I do for you?” she asked.

“Go home.”

The response was so quick that Maia had little time to process it. And there was even less time between the words spoken and her being pushed out of the room and back out to the front of the church.

Despite her size her mother was strong. Also, her hands were bony, so fighting against them only ended in unnecessary pain. It was always best to just go with it.

By the time they reached the entrance there was no more pushing since Maia started walking a little faster to get her fingers out her back.

They didn’t stop until they reached her car though and even then, her mother pushed her until Maia’s butt was in the seat. Once the car was started and she had her seat belt on her mother fixed her with a serious expression.

“Now, you will head straight home and call me when you get there. If you fall asleep and forget to call me, I will send a search party to your apartment. No excuses. No saying you forgot. Am I understood?” she said.

Maia was ready to give some hypothetical scenario where she would need an excuse to explain why she hadn’t called her, but then she watched her eyebrow raise again. Testing her was unwise and she refused to risk herself like that.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

With that her mother leaned through the window and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“I love you.”

Maia smiled. “I love you too.”

Once her mother was safely on the sidewalk Maia pulled off and headed towards the freeway. Well, she acted like she was and then once out of site she turned left instead of right.

Upon arrival to the church a familiar energy filled the place. It was stronger as she’d gone throughout the building though it was dulled by the pain she felt by being inside. But she’d managed to hold onto it and since whoever it was didn’t choose to disappear into thin air and instead made sure they could be detected the whole way back to their spot.

After about twenty minutes she ended up outside some bar that looked ready to collapse. Which didn’t deter the people from packing the place to the point that they spilled out of the building and into the front parking lot. That didn’t seem to halt their partying though. People were dancing and interacting just like they would when on the inside.

Maia parked her car just outside of the parking lot - blocking the sole way to get a car in and out. When she exited her vehicle, there were glares thrown her way for what she’d done and one person looked prepared to approach, but her glamour dropped. Power radiated off her in heavy waves and the approaching fallen backed off rather quickly.

He wasn’t the only one to move away. As she walked towards the entrance everyone moved out of her way and if they didn’t someone helped them move. The obvious fear didn’t stop all the glaring though. A few humans were displeased with her interruption of their fun and a few fallen seemed to not be so welcoming of her presence either.

It didn’t matter since none of them had the balls to try her.

Even inside of the bar she made them part like the Red Sea. They made it so easy for her to get from her car into the basement located at the back of the building. Something she would have missed completely if she weren’t following an energy signature.

Once her foot hit the last step she stopped and glanced around the space until her gaze landed on who she was looking for. In a corner of the basement a group of fallen stood huddled having what appeared to be an intense conversation.

None of them glanced her way once. Well, all of them except for one. The Afro-Asian man stared her down with a smug smile playing on his lips. And he was exactly who she was looking for.

Without a second thought Maia walked towards the group and most of them scattered the moment she got within ten feet.

“You know that church is off limits,” Maia said as she stopped five feet away.

There would be no formalities or niceties.

And as she foresaw their little leader laughed. The man - Darien - was known for making light of situations no matter if he had the upper hand or not. He simply liked to appear as if he didn’t care and was some badass who was untouchable. It was a strong appearance, but Maia knew what he tried to hide deep underneath that facade.

“Since when do we put churches as off-limits? Breaking their faith is what the mission is, and I believe we carried that out well,” Darien said.

Despite her usual urge to just snap surfacing Maia was able to keep herself calm rather easily. Something about the dynamic she had with Darien always made her feel comfortable in who she was and what she could do to him if need be. Which was odd seeing as he’d kicked her ass on more than one occasion during spars and such.

“It's off-limits because I made it off-limits. There is no using the mission as an excuse. You will follow what you're told and not waver from it again,” she said.

Darien didn’t say or do anything, just continued to look at her with a smug expression on his face. But there was something in his eyes, something that didn’t quite fit in with his cool facade. A flicker of anger.

That made Maia smile.

“You’ll leave the church alone, just as you'll leave everything you're not supposed to touch alone. This is not something I'll discuss with you again. Next time we won't have a conversation at all.”

With that she was prepared to leave, but then Darien had something else to say.

“You talk a big game, Maia. I sure hope that you keep this same energy when we meet again during your ceremony. Last time wasn’t great for you.”

The anger in his eyes was much more prominent then. Despite him being the one to bring up the subject he appeared so upset talking about it.

Maia laughed obnoxiously; it was so over the top that she annoyed herself a little. “I hope you can do the same. Don’t want you floundering around again at the mere image of your angel brother. But then again I’m sure that when I cross paths with Matthew again for real, he’ll get a kick out of his big bad fallen brother nearly crying as I prepared to slaughter a demonic copy of him.”

There was nothing left to be said so Maia turned on her heel and walked away. Her exit was just like her entrance and she made it back to her car with ease. Once inside she put her glamour back up and pulled off.

Being near that bar any longer wasn’t something she wanted or needed.

When she finally made it onto the freeway her phone vibrated, and she watched a text flashing on the screen. Picking it up she unlocked it to see it was from her mother.

I forgot the mention that Issac's birthday dinner is coming up this weekend. You can bring whomever you want, just make sure you show up.

A groan escaped her just as the phone vibrated again.

You better not look at this while driving!!!!

Knowing that responding would lead to her being yelled at Maia simply threw the phone to the side and contemplated life. Well, more like contemplated who she’d bring to avoid her mother’s side eye.

Just as she mentally decided to go alone, she remembered something she needed to do.

“Call Yoongi,” she said.

Before the phone rang three times the male was in the passenger seat of her car. He made her pull over and took the driver’s seat. Which was perfect timing because with knowing her mother was okay her body finally remembered how much pain it was in.

She slept the whole drive home.


	15. Chapter 15

One would think that after months of working her ass off in every aspect of her life Maia would gain some control or at least be able to handle it. But that was a lie. Life ran her into the ground and some days it felt like things were worse than when she’d first gotten back into training.

And a Thursday after her last class of the week was one of those days. She’d only had two classes, so it wasn’t too bad, but halfway through her second class her legs started to ache. It was the soreness from having to sprint for well over an hour while Sama’el periodically attacked her. He said her agility was lacking and despite the strenuous workout he’d had her do before that he wanted more from her. She almost told him to fuck off, but decided to get it over with so not to hear him talk about how she’d failed to listen to him or wasn’t committed the next time there was a meeting with her father.

However, that meant that she was forced to pay the ultimate soreness price. She’d tried her best to keep the pain to a minimum with rolling her legs out, ice baths, constantly massaging her muscles, stretching, and some pain pills. But that could only do so much.

She’d been thankful for waking up with minimal pain that day, but of course that couldn’t last forever. But she had to suffer through the pain because she wanted to feel not so crappy.

That even meant walking up the stairs to her third-floor apartment when the elevator was being used by someone moving in. Using the shadows was an option, but she wanted to keep her legs moving for a while. Especially since she was ready to go into the apartment and barely move off her couch that evening.

By the time she reached her door she cursed herself but felt a little better. The sharp ache dulled considerably, and her legs felt less weak then when she’d first started walking.

A small win.

Once inside of the apartment she kicked off her shoes and debated on what she should eat for dinner, but then the smell of pizza hit her. With a raised brow she walked out of the front door hallway and into her living room and kitchen area. On the table in front of the couch laid various snacks and two boxes of pizza. She even caught the label of her favorite ginger ale, which she had run out of days before. And on the TV Netflix queued up with one of her favorite shows.

But despite the surprise at what she was seeing when she turned her head towards the kitchen, she wasn’t shocked by who stood there.

Yoongi leaned against her breakfast bar playing with his phone and eating a slice of pizza. Of course, he knew she was there, but he didn’t glance her way. It took her walking up to him and snatching the pizza from his hand to gain his attention.

“Just letting ourselves in again, are we?” She asked before taking a large bite of his slice.

At first, he just glared at her, but after her second bite he simply pushed her back so he could head over to the coffee table. Maia turned and watched him, waiting for a response.

Once near the couch Yoongi turned to her and beckoned her forward, but she didn’t move and that made him roll his eyes. He didn’t say a word though, well not until he’d snatched another piece of pizza from the box and took a bite.

“Don’t start complaining because we both know you don’t care. And that you want me to massage your legs because of my oh so magic fingers,” he said.

Usually she’d argue with him, but she knew better than to deny any of that - especially the fingers thing. She’d made it very clear on more than one occasion how much she enjoyed his hands in sexual and not sexual settings.

Rolling her eyes, she simply walked past him and plopped down onto the couch. She finished off the slice she’d stolen from him and then went to grab another one.

Yoongi didn’t bother talking after that. He simply sat down next to her and started the show. For two-hour length episodes they didn’t speak to each other, just sat, and ate their food. It didn’t mean they were completely silent, there was laughter here and there, as well as comments directed towards the characters or the show’s plot.

It was nice that Maia’s thoughts no longer lingered on her leg pain or how tired she was. They didn’t linger on anything really. She was just there in the moment enjoying a peaceful night.

But of course, after a while it seemed too chill and she felt like something was up.

It started when, without prompting, Yoongi forced her to readjust the position she was in so that her legs draped over his lap. He didn’t utter a word or glance her way, just started massaging her right calf and continued to watch TV.

Maia wanted to say something, but then he applied pressure to just the right spot and she found herself moaning in content. She wasn’t even embarrassed when he side eyed her because it felt that good. And for about twenty minutes she was in bliss, even as Yoongi slowly moved her body closer so he could get higher up.

At least that’s what it seemed like until she was practically in his lap. When she realized how close they became she stopped paying attention to the show - which was barely holding her attention anyway with his hands at work - and turned to him.

He still wasn’t looking her way, but there was a smirk playing on his lips as he continued to apply pressure to her inner thigh. That’s what confirmed for Maia that he had to be up to something. She’d chalk it up to something sex related, but he was doing way too much for it to be just that. Of course, he would do nice things like getting her favorite foods or cuddle her on the couch watching a show they loved before, but something was different.

Without a second thought, Maia shifted so that she was straddling his lap. Her thicker thighs making his own seem smaller than usual, and her butt resting firmly in his lap. And without missing a beat Yoongi’s hands moved to press against her lower back, slightly resting on her ass.

“You’re up to something,” she said.

Yoongi didn’t appear phased at all, just kept smiling at her.

“Maybe that’s true.”

“What is it?”

“Would you believe me if I said I just wanted to cuddle and stay the night? You do kick me out after, and I really don’t want to feel like some sort of plaything.”

Maia laughed at that. “I would, but I know it can just be that. Also, let’s not pretend you don’t like being my plaything.”

Yoongi pursed his lips for a moment and then shrugged. After that he just stared at her and Maia stared back. They sat there for a while with the TV forgotten. Maia had found something much more interesting to watch as she examined his face, her eyes lingering on his lips for a moment longer than she would like. But the second his smile widened she snapped out of it.

Clearing her throat, she spoke up, “Tell me what you’re up to. I’m not spending my whole night waiting for you to drop a bomb on me or something.”

At first it looked like Yoongi would ignore her, but then he stopped smiling. His lips turned down into something that wasn’t exactly a frown but wasn’t happy either.

“There are two things we need to talk about. Maybe three, but mainly those two things,” he said.

He sounded so serious and that worried Maia. She had zero clue what he could possibly say. Her brain scrambled to find some idea about what it was about, but it came up with nothing and she was unsure if that was a good or bad thing.

“Okay. What’s the first thing?” she asked.

Yoongi side and chewed on his lower lip for a moment before speaking. “You can’t get mad at me or lash out.”

That didn’t sit well with her at all.

“You know I can’t promise that.”

He sighed and nodded. “True, but you have to hear me out. No running off or throwing a fit. Understood?”

That also didn’t give Maia any comfort, but she nodded.

“Okay. I think you need to sit down and talk with Lilith and your father.”

Immediately Maia tried to get off his lap, but Yoongi’s hands held firm and kept her in place. He gave her a look and despite the clear annoyance on her face and the urge to not hear him out she remained on his lap.

“As I was saying. You need to talk to them. I know that you’re upset with them and have every right to be, but it can’t keep going on like this. It can’t be a constant worry if they’ll say something stupid enough to set you off. It doesn’t matter if it’s physical or verbal. It doesn’t matter if it’s amongst people or in private. Things can’t keep going on like this. It makes things tense with everyone and just because you may not give into your urges to lash out doesn’t mean no one can tell that you want to.

“And I know, lovie. I know you’re pissed and want to release your emotions how it feels best for you, but it isn’t healthy. Putting aside the tension and issues it could cause, I’m worried about how it’s affecting you. How you’re handling this shit. Getting it out verbally could be helpful to you, even if it doesn’t end in a happy reunion. Even if you end up angrier than you started it’s best you get it out and try to move past it. And moving past it means talking…”

Maia turned her head away from Yoongi chewing on her lip hard enough that she could draw blood if she continued.

“Hey,” he said, using one of his hands to turn her face back towards his. He appeared sympathetic and it made her feel a bit better, but not nearly enough.

“I know you don’t want to, but you have to. This can’t go on for years or centuries. It has to end at some point and sooner is better than later. And since I know this is shitty, you should start with Lilith. You’re not mad at her like you are at him. Then you could move past it and talk to him.”

While he spoke, Maia leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his shoulder. She really didn’t want to be having that conversation, but then again, she didn’t really say anything, so it wasn’t much of a conversation anyway.

She wanted to be annoyed or angry with him for even mentioning the idea of talking to either of them, but he wasn’t wrong. He made some valid points and despite the way her stomach churned, and she shuddered at the memory of all that had occurred she couldn’t find an ounce of her who rejected the idea.

They needed to talk at some point.

The more time Maia spent being amongst them again meant her being closer to having to work side by side with both of them more. Especially her father. He’d demand her presence in Hell more often and she’d do it because it’s what she wanted, but she’d always be consumed by anger. She’d always be ready to yell or throw a punch. And that wasn’t helpful to anyone, including her.

After a few minutes of silence, she lifted her head to speak, but then something flashed in her mind. It was like she was no longer in her apartment, but instead her bedroom in Hell. She was in pain and her hand reaching out for someone, but instead of taking it they turned and walked away from her. Maia watched on and cried out for him to turn around, but he kept going until she could no longer see him.

Maia’s head dropped back down onto Yoongi’s shoulder and she shook her head vigorously. Tears stung her eyes and she felt her breathing become slightly uneven; a dull ache formed in her chest.

“No. No, I can’t. I refuse. I will not talk to him. I just won’t. He’s just… How can I even speak to him? How can he ever…”

Yoongi’s arms wrapped around her instantly, pulling her tight against him. Then he shushed her, pressing kisses to her shoulder and collarbone. It had a calming effect on her and with the way she’d started to get worked up she definitely needed to be calmed.

A few minutes passed before Yoongi pulled away a bit and cupped her face in his hands. He stared into her eyes for a moment before speaking.

“That was a bad idea and I’m sorry I brought it up. You can talk to him when you’re ready and only when you’re ready. But I do think you should give Lilith a chance. She’s been fucking up a lot lately, but maybe this could take away some of the stress and pressure for both of you. Does that sound like an okay idea?” he said, his voice soft.

Maia had calmed considerably, but had no faith in her ability to speak so she simply nodded. With that confirmation Yoongi pulled her close again, lightly pushing her head so it rested on his shoulder once more. He then proceeded to litter her neck, shoulder, and collarbone in kisses. They held no underlying sexual intentions and were clearly just a means to show Maia affection and keep her from breaking down like she almost had.

And for who knows how long they stayed that way.

When Maia finally felt not two seconds from breaking, she took a deep breath and spoke, “What’s the other thing?”

“Hm?” Yoongi hummed while pressing a lingering kiss on the base of her neck.

“What was the other thing you wanted to talk about?” she asked while pulling away.

Seriousness no longer morphed Yoongi’s features when she looked at him, instead it was something akin to bashfulness. It threw her off completely and she really wanted to know what was going on in his head but waited for him to find his voice.

“It’s like I said earlier I wanted to cuddle and stay over. But, would you believe me if I said I was trying to make a good impression? I know, you’ve known me for a long time and already know who and how I am. But we’ve been apart for so long that I felt like I needed to remind you. We’ve been back in each other’s lives for a while now and it’s been like it used to be. And I love that we fell into this so easily, but we also haven’t addressed what it is we’re doing here. Probably to avoid awkwardness or tension, at least that’s why I hadn’t brought it up. But I want to talk about it, Maia,” he said.

Though the shift in expression had Maia thinking the subject was a lighter one, that proved false. Obviously, it was nothing like having to talk to Lilith and her father about her feelings and their actions, but it was still talking about feelings. And though she was much surer of what she wanted she was unsure of how to approach the situation. There was no playbook on how to talk to your ex about something like that, but despite that she didn’t want to avoid it.

Yoongi was right; they needed to talk.

“I care, Maia. I knew this has been hard and I know we've been apart for years, but it's changed nothing. I still love you as much as the day I realized I did. Nothing has dulled or changed that, even when I felt like you were treating me unfairly,” he continued.

That made her feel beyond guilty, but it wasn’t the time to get all sad and sulk about that. There was no changing how things went down.

Maia took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You’re right. And I know you’ve told me I don’t need to keep apologizing, but I feel like I need to say it again. I’m sorry. I was way out of line with everything I said to you that night. Even if you had done something to hurt me, I was wrong. Bringing up things that weren't problems as problems, bringing up things you’d told me in confidence. What you were forced to do before in your past life was hard and I know you hated it, and you confided in me only to have me through it back in your face. I was horrible and it was inexcusable. He deserved all of my anger, not you. Least of all you.”

While she spoke, Maia didn’t realize she’d started looking down until Yoongi was once again redirecting her face, so she was looking at him. Yoongi smiled at her and pressed his forehead to hers.

“I know. And like I said it’s fine and we’re past it. Right now, is where I want us to be. Not then. We’ve moved on from it. I promise.”

Maia laughed. “I've never deserved the sweetness that is you. I still question how such a dangerous and sinful man can be this sweet.”

At that Yoongi smiled, pulling back from her to press kisses on her cheeks.

“You bring out the sweetness in me, lovie. You deserve to be treated with love and kindness, and I intend to do that as long as you let me,” he said.

The mushiness of it all had Maia’s cheeks burning so much that she was sure a pink color tinged them. She wanted to hide her face, but Yoongi kept it in place so she couldn’t look anywhere but at him.

“Now, as I was saying. Can we stop this running around shit and agree to continue? I'd really like to be able to say I'm hanging out and cuddling with my girlfriend and not a girl that's a friend.”

For a moment Maia mauled it over and then she nodded.

“What does that mean? I need words,” he said.

She simply nodded again and that time he leaned over and slightly bit her shoulder eliciting a squeal from her. She tried to escape him after that, but he just wrapped his arms around her and kept biting.

“Answer the question and I stop!”

“Okay! Okay! Yes! Now stop it you weirdo.”

He bit her one last time really hard and then pulled away, smiling at her as if nothing happened. Maia planned to cuss him out, but then his lips were on hers.

She melted into him instantly, her arms wrapped around his neck as she tilted her head and pressed closer. His lips were as soft as she remembered and that made her want more. It’s also why when he pulled away, she made a whining noise and tried to move closer.

However, Yoongi never gave her the chance. Instead she was suddenly on her back being pressed into the couch. Her shock barely processed as his lips were suddenly on hers again. But just like before they were gone too soon and trailed down her neck.

Yoongi reached just above her breasts before he stopped and looked up at her, a smirk playing on his lips.

“This is good. Though it means it takes a little of the sinfulness of premarital sex since you’re my girlfriend and not just some girl,” he said right before ripping the front of her shirt.

Despite how into it Maia was she still managed to punch him before indulging in her boyfriend.


	16. Chapter 16

Weekly meetings with Lilith were another part of Maia’s re-immersion that she hated. It always felt like a waste of her time because they’d just go over things that Lilith or Maia were already aware of because they’d been brought up throughout the week. Plus, the concept of having to spend one on one time with the fallen didn’t please Maia at all; especially since that’s when Lilith did a lot of her sucking up.

It was so hard not to snap or cringe. And surprisingly the cringe presented itself more than annoyance and anger.

But Maia had promised Yoongi she’d try, so she took that meeting as the first step. She refused to have feelings time with Lilith so soon, but she hadn’t minded being nicer to her. Or at least not being as hostile.

So, when she’d arrived at their meeting her thoughts centered on being more present and less drifting off to think of ways she could escape, cuss her out, or something much more violent. There would be no meanness. None.

When Lilith arrived though, something was off. Though her usual happy disposition was there she was more reserved. There was no attempt into forcing small talk with Maia as she usually did or beating around the bush. Though to be honest Maia was grateful for that. No matter her standing with Lilith she did not like small talk, especially when it was clear that she had no urge to actively engage in it.

“Okay. This isn’t going to be our usual meeting. We’ve covered most of what we need to know and discuss over the last few days, so I won’t go over it again. So, unless you have some questions about those things or something new to report I would like to move to a different topic of discussion. The ritual,” Lilith said.

Maia stilled.

Of course, they’d discussed it on and off over several months, but never was it when they were alone together or when it was the sole point of conversation. There was great care taken to ensure it wasn’t in-depth as to avoid setting Maia off.

That had to stop at some point though. They couldn’t tip toe around for too long since they wanted her to complete it sooner rather than later.

Or at least that’s what Maia kept telling herself to ward off the imagery that started forming in her head at the mention of it.

After taking a deep breath she spoke up. “What about it?”

Lilith appeared a little shocked by the calm response, but she didn’t allow it to throw her off her game for too long. With a neutral facade she stared at Maia.

“We’re going to need to do it soon. Naturally, you’d still wait a little longer, but it feels good to get it out of the way now. Your school break is coming up and no matter the way it goes you’ll need some time to recuperate and I know you wouldn’t want to miss a week or more of school to do so.”

At that it was Maia’s turn to be surprised. Lilith sang a different tune from the last time school and Maia’s dedication to being a fallen was called into play. She was being considerate and though it wasn’t against her character Lilith’s actions in the weeks before had told a different story.

“That makes sense. I would hate to not be able to get finals done because I was too tired to leave my bed or in another coma. If you could call that a coma,” Maia said.

There was a moment of silence as Lilith nodded and then directed her gaze towards a stack of papers, she’d brought with her. Maia watched her and said nothing since she wasn’t sure on where the conversation would head.

After a minute or so Lilith looked up and her smile completely left her lips. Her expression was serious and determined. At one point in life it made Maia nervous when she did that, but over time that stopped. Plus, they were talking about a serious subject manner and sometimes that meant a complete shift in one’s usual outward disposition.

“You’ve been briefed on everything that happens within the ritual many times before, but it has been a few years so do you need it in full again or can we proceed?” she asked.

“We can proceed.” There was no way Maia would ever forget what should happen in the ritual, especially since it haunted her nightmares.

Lilith nodded. “Okay. Obviously, we’re still a few weeks out but we thought it best to have this sort of briefing sooner rather than later. First, can you tell me the goal of the ritual? What it is you are to do and why?”

For a second Maia felt herself start to slip back to that day, but she pulled it together. Her nails dug into the palm of her hand and the mild pain was enough to ground her to reality. Something so faint that it was nowhere near what she felt then and so her mind couldn’t trick her into thinking that she was.

“The goal is to ensure my status as a full fledged fallen. A test of my loyalty to what we’re doing and my dedication to ensuring I help with the cause. I am to enter the room and fight off demons who wish to devour my unmarked soul. I am to overcome them as they morph into those I care for and those who have in some way left their mark on me in ways that may not always be pleasant. I am to overcome it all. And then I am to draw my own blood and pledge my allegiance. Not to the king himself, but to Hell. Because it is Hell that I am to be loyal to more than that who sits on its throne. And once that is done, I am to consume the blood of a demon to cement things. After which my body will give out,” Maia recited robotically.

“And what is not to happen? What could adversely affect the goal?”

Maia’s mouth opened and closed. Her mind raced as if it didn’t know the answer despite it being at the forefront of her thoughts. Facing the question on what could go wrong was hard for her since she’d experienced what was probably the worst-case scenario of when things did go wrong. The memories pushed hard to the surface and her ability to ignore them or the voice telling her to give in became harder as each second passed.

She didn’t even realize that she’d started driving her nails into her hand enough to break the skin until Lilith lightly tapped it. Maia’s gaze cast downward to see a trickle of blood escape and Lilith using a piece of tissue she’d pulled out of nowhere to wipe it away.

Though the first instinct was to pull free she held still and allowed her to clean it. It was almost like it calmed Maia, having someone else clean up her wounds for once. And oddly enough she held no animosity towards Lilith in that moment, even if she were technically to blame for the memories that attempted to flood her brain.

Once the hand was clean and the wound inspected - it was barely there - Lilith looked up at Maia’s face with what could’ve been remorse, but Maia refused to read into it.

“I would move on if we could, but I need to make sure that everything is clear with you. That you remember and understand what is happening here. That you aren’t going into this not knowing,” Lilith said softly.

“It’s fine,” Maia said.

She paused to take another deep breath and then with her eyes focused solely on Lilith she spoke again.

“If I do not take on every obstacle I will fail. I need to be able to take everyone down in some way without hesitation no matter the face they wear or I fail. I need to take down every demon that comes at me or I fail. I need to consume the right amount of blood because too much could be harmful and too little could not work. And I need to ensure that any poison from demon talons is at a minimum. I can only handle so much and if I take in too much, especially before the blood is consumed, I could be harmed greatly. We have seen the effects of that already.”

Lilith nodded along with her and once Maia was finished, she opened her mouth to speak, but something possessed Maia to tack on one last thing.

“And I need to exude that I am in fact a being dedicated to being a fallen. Any hints of angel in me will set off a frenzy. Which means finding the right sweet spot for my glamour, so they know not to come at me too much, while also not being in fear because of the power I give off.”

That seemed to make Lilith uncomfortable, her lips turned down into a frown and her eyes held sadness. Her entire body stiffened, and she leaned away from Maia quite a bit. It was almost as if she’d turned in on herself and was no longer in the room.

To a degree Maia felt bad about it, she hadn’t intended to do that, but she also was doing what she was supposed to. Just because it brought up bad memories for the both of them didn’t mean she could skip over it, even if she’d preferred that more than anything.

It took a few minutes after that for Lilith to rejoin her within the moment. But even then, the look of despair was etched into her expression.

“That is right. And as much as we want your sole focus to be on getting that done, we need you to ensure you are focused on the what could happen. But with the way you have been working hard and impressing Sama’el I’m sure that there will be little to no problem with your ability to fight and keep a look out. But despite that faith this time there will be another fallen in the room with you. We have not chosen who yet, but it will be someone high within the ranks to keep watch. They will not interfere unless they have to,” Lilith said.

Another surprise to Maia. They drilled into her that she would be completely alone in there in the years leading up to the first time. That no matter what happened they would not come in until they assumed she was done. And no amount of calling out or screaming would be heard or at least they thought so until she screamed loud enough to alert them last time.

She guessed that was enough to change things around, even if it was just for her.

“Okay. I’m sure anyone you pick will be fine,” Maia said.

From there Lilith went into detail about how they would set things up and how it would go because despite Maia saying she didn’t need the whole rundown she obviously couldn’t help herself. Maia didn’t object though, she allowed her to go through it all and reaffirm what Maia did or didn’t know.

The one difference was that it was in far greater detail then when she’d first been told everything. She assumed it was another reaction to everything that went wrong. Lilith needed to know she knew everything and more, even if it was useless information that would not come into play at all.

And Maia wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it warmed her heart a little to see such care put into ensuring that she was prepared for all the things.

By the time they finished an hour and a half passed and Lilith was quick to gather her things to leave. Another thing that was different. She’d usually try to start a conversation with Maia to worm her way back in.

They both seemed to be trying to make changes.

Maia got up after she did and instead of staying back, she walked with her to the door. She even opened it and motioned for Lilith to head out first. If Lilith was shocked by that she didn’t show it, just gave a quick bow of the head, and made her way out.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Maia said as Lilith walked down the hall away from her.

Lilith paused and turned to look at her with wide eyes but shook it off quickly. She nodded at Maia in acknowledgement before continuing on her way.

Maia could have sworn she saw some genuineness in her smile as her head turned away too.

It wasn’t a lot in regard to taking the proper steps to reconciliation, but it was a step. And one of those was all that was needed to get the ball rolling.


	17. Chapter 17

Almost every mission that Maia went on felt like it blended into the one before it. They were repetitive and some of the most menial tasks she’d ever been assigned to do or watch over, but they were necessary.

That’s what she reminded herself every time she went out on them.

Remembering that things were necessary and that she couldn’t get comfortable was how she didn’t mess things up. There was room for mistakes here and there when dealing with certain things like human interactions to entice chaos, but she never wanted to make those. Allowing herself to mess up there would mean that it leaked into the more intricate situations, things that involved direct contact with angels. Something that delicate couldn’t have her making a rookie mistake. Even if it didn’t throw off whole plans it would be noticed by others or stuck on her mind for forever.

Like those cringey moments you have throughout life that you remember at three in the morning as you try to sleep peacefully.

But despite all that logic she found herself bored out of her mind during a mission. She’d been sent along to watch some newbies and some humans do a quick job. They would go and sabotage some of the product that a drug dealer had in a warehouse. Well, sabotage and grab some of it. They knew some dealers would still sell tampered products because all they wanted was the money. So, to make that harder for them they stole half.

Things on the mission had run smoothly, and from her position on the roof’s skylight she didn’t see any real problems, but thirty minutes passed and they weren’t finished. They were moving slow as hell for some reason with getting the stuff into the truck they’d brought. It was such an uncoordinated effort that she wanted to scream at them to get their shit together. However, she couldn’t do that.

Besides messing with the supply, the goal of the little mission was to see how the new fallen fared after all their training. How they operated in a team and with the humans who worked alongside them. That meant that they were to only be observed with little to no interference unless something went very wrong.

Which Maia had wished the entire time she’d watched them.

Though at the same time she didn’t want anything to go wrong at all. If not for the sake of everyone, at least for the sake of the twins. They’d been called on to be a part of it because they worked well within fallen leadership and knew how to guide people well enough that it felt like they were still in charge. Something that needed to be done more than anyone would like when it came to new fallen taking charge of missions.

It was why she was so annoyed with the whole thing. They clearly spoke to the chosen leader for the task and yet nothing changed. If anything, things got slower with each suggestion they threw his way as if he were doing the opposite of whatever they told him.

When the forty-five-minute mark hit Maia had enough though. She pulled her phone from her pocket and called Erica. It took a few seconds, but she saw as she answered the phone and glanced up to the ceiling to see her.

“What the fuck is taking so long?” Maia asked.

Though she couldn’t see Erica’s face clearly she did notice the way she tilted her head, which indicated the eye roll she’d done.

“We tried, but he wants to be overly thorough and for some reason isn’t in any rush. He literally told them to pick up one box at a time so not to strain themselves. As if half of them don’t have the strength to cart at least three,” Erica whispered.

Of course, that was the issue. Despite the chosen path - and sometimes not chosen - some fallen failed to adjust to the fact that they were supernatural beings. Being one didn’t mean they could take on the world by themselves and it didn’t manifest in ways that were always blatantly there, but it was still clear. But since they weren’t always immersed in what they’d gain since swearing their allegiance some tended to forget. Or at least underestimate the fact that they could be less careful.

Maia sighed. “Tell him it’s been forty-five minutes and you need to hurry up. The people could be back soon. Actually, announce that it’s been forty-five minutes. I want everyone to know how long they’ve been down there and move faster. One of them should’ve picked up the slack if he was failing. It’s not fucking rocket science. And I swear if they come back befo- Shit. Shit.”

Off in the distance Maia saw cars roll up. There were two dark gray SUVs coming at them and doing it fast. There would be no time to get them all out of there and complete the mission how it should have been done in the first place. The fallen had done so many things wrong and they couldn’t be righted.

“What Maia?” Erica asked nervously..

“Tell them to get the last of that shit in the van and prepare for incoming. It’s only humans, but that doesn’t make them that much less dangerous. Weapons at the ready now!” she practically screamed into the phone.

After that she hung up and tapped the comm in her ear.

“Every last one of you better move faster and be ready to engage. You are not moving fast enough. You are a fallen fucking act like it. Now!”

That got them to get a move on and in thirty seconds they were all packed up. Then they moved towards the front entrance with their weapons ready. Which only exacerbated Maia more.

“Why the fuck are the humans at the front? Did you fucking learn nothing at all? Fix your formation for goodness sake! Actually no. Humans to the van now. They’re forty-five seconds out so sprint.”

The five fallen moved forward and the four humans ran towards the van. It wasn’t too far to get to the other side of the warehouse where it was, so they got there with about twenty seconds to spare. Once they were safely inside Maia felt herself calm a little, though it was only her nerves and not her anger.

“I don’t know how many there are, but they’re probably going to pull up and walk in. I will tell you your count then. Once they are all inside I want that van gone. Drive as fast as you can out of the back exit to put some distance and then blend in so not to get pulled over. Take the back way to get back to the meeting point. And if you see cops as you get closer keep going until you get there. Someone will deal with it. But do not stop,” she said.

There were murmurs of agreement.

Both SUVs came to a stop right in front of the entrance and after a few tense seconds they all piled out. There were four from one car and three from the other. The fallen were outnumbered, but they were supposed to be the stronger of the two. And Maia would always step in if she were needed.

Though they needed to be taught a lesson and being overtaken and possibly injured by someone who should rarely have the upper hand on them was a good one. Not that it would free them of how she’d later tear into them.

“There are seven of them. Only five of them are armed with guns. Which means take them down first, but do not allow the others the chance to escape. We do not need a chase. Move swiftly and accurately. You can do this,” she said.

Mad or not she needed to be reassuring. They still had feelings.

“Wait. Seven? We could stay behind and help. It’s what we normally do anyway. It’s not like we weren’t prepared for this. I’m getting out,” Alex said.

“No. You stay in that car and go. That’s it,” she said firmly.

There were some grumbles and it sounded like he tried to argue, but then there was a shushing sound and she let it go. They weren’t her focus anyway.

Crouching she watched the door from her position intently and when she saw light flood through she stiffened. None of them seemed to notice the people waiting for them right away and it wasn’t until the second to last person was inside that someone did. That brought on immediate action from the group and the next thing she knew their guns were drawn, but she couldn’t say anything until the last person stepped in.

“What are you doing here?” someone shouted.

“What did you do with our product?” yelled another.

They all looked ready to shoot, but instead stared down her fallen as if they wanted answers from them. Which was great because it took them longer to notice the van running towards the back, and when they did the last person had entered the warehouse.

“Drive!” Maia shouted.

Tires screeching on pavement was all she heard and all the dealers needed to hear before they started shooting. And though she wanted to focus on them getting away, she had to do something else to ensure that. Without a second to waste she sprinted across the roof until she got to the edge and even then she didn’t truly stop. She dropped about a foot before she was consumed by shadows and emerged crouched on the ground with one of her scimitars in hand.

Not taking a moment to breathe she slashed the tires of both cars before any of the men inside could think to retreat. And one of them did think to do so - their leader to be exact.

The man came out of the warehouse rattled and seemed more so when he saw her standing there, a sword already to his throat. He fumbled for his hip, but before he could touch the gun he had there Maia had moved forward and flipped the sword so she held the blade in her hand and slammed the hilt into his head. The force was more than enough to knock him out, but not kill him.

She didn’t want him dead.

And thankfully when she entered the warehouse she found that the others with him hadn’t been killed either. They were either knocked out or wounded enough that they couldn’t move about freely. The fallen also didn’t appear too injured, though one of them held their arm and she could see the blood seeping through their shirt.

“So, you do know how to do your jobs, huh?” she asked, though she didn’t leave them room to answer. “Get that taken care of and meet for debriefing in twenty minutes. Now go.”

There was no attempt to argue with her, they all nodded and disappeared into the shadows. Which shook up the two conscious men on the floor and that was a problem.

“You saw something, but you can’t really remember. You will repress this for most of your lives. Until of course you’re old and senile. If you manage to not get yourself killed. Okay?” she said.

Their eyes glossed over and they nodded and with that Maia took her leave.

###

“In the end what we learned is that none of you learned anything. One of you was in charge and somehow thought forty-five minutes is what it took to tamper with drugs and load them into a van. You spent fifteen minutes sitting there dividing tasks when it should have been done before you left. Plans you should have told them when you were informed of this mission. You had a week to prepare with the location known to you beforehand. You took a week to tell them. You took a week to come up with a plan. To brainstorm that plan. Fucking hell, you took a week to enact the plan. You were told you could call it at any time and all you had to do was tell someone so you could be observed and yet here we are. The day of your deadline.

“Oh, and don’t get me started on the plan. What the fuck was the use of the van? You have the ability to move through shadows and you didn’t think just making an assembly line to do that or some other variation was a better idea. You had humans with you, if they had been pulled over this whole thing would have been more difficult than it needed to be. And don’t even think the humans were an excuse because you can take them through the shadows. There are more than a fucking ‘nough of you. And if there weren’t you could have recruited more or asked me to grab one. Just so much stupid shit occurred and y’all let it. You didn’t tell him you needed to move faster. And those who did you didn’t listen to. So, please explain to me how the fuck you think you’re ready?”

Not one person had a response. They all wore expressions of scolded child, which meant either ashamed, sad, or pissed off. Which Maia didn’t give one fuck about because they’d gone out there and done a shit job.

Standing from her seat she sighed. “All of you are back to training. You haven’t learned a thing and need more. When you figure out how to operate in this environment then you can try this again. Now, go report to Seth.”

There were nods and grumbles in agreement as they rose from their seats and headed out of the room. The humans trailed after them, though the twins stayed behind. Something about their expression had Maia perplexed because they appeared upset and she couldn’t figure out why. Before she could ask though Lilith was calling for her to talk about something and she had to handle that first.

She had no idea how much she was right about their displeased feelings.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hasn't been beta read so when it is I'll update it with those changes, which usually aren't a lot.

At some point Maia’s training within the group lessened so it was more one on one-time with Sama’el or Yoongi when the demon wasn’t available. Though that didn’t mean that she didn’t have to show up to the sessions even then. In fact, she felt like she ended up in the training warehouse more than she’d been before.

About part way through her own reacclimation she’d been tasked with teaching other fallen and eventually teaching the humans. After breaking one too many bones in the newbie fallen, she’d been moved to strictly humans because she naturally went easier on them. Which wasn’t the case for the last fallen who’d taken them on and had injured multiple of them in one training session and hadn’t thought to stop and wasn’t stopped.

And for that she found herself being dragged out of bed on Saturday mornings to go down and teach them when she could’ve been sleeping. Or doing anything other than exerting great amounts of energy.

“Again,” she shouted.

There were groans and mumbles about being tired, but with one look they silenced themselves and did what they were supposed to. They were thirty minutes into their session and because of multiple screw ups on basic defensive stances they were forced to run drills again. That meant taking turns to attack one another and blocking those attacks. Which they didn’t take seriously to start and that made the drills longer.

Something that Maia didn’t want but did because they wasted her time. At the end of the day she’d end the session on time and any time lost to make real progress was on them and only them.

“Again,” she said.

For some reason they didn’t complain that time, just did it to the best of their abilities. So, she said it over and over until she saw that they were being serious about their training and not taking it with ease.

“All that time wasted on this when you could’ve just done it right the first time. Just because it’s early and this isn’t real it does not mean that you slack up. This is the only time outside of a real situation that you have to prepare for this kind of thing and unless you want to be injured more than necessary or killed then you need to act like you’re fucking learning something. Don’t test me or we will spend the entire time doing drills and I will leave when time is up for you to practice on your own. Am I understood?”

There were several yeses and a few grunts of agreement, but she waited until she made eye contact with every single one of them and then straightened up before saying anything else. She wasn’t above telling someone to leave if they were going to be a baby about it and had done it many times.

“Good. You know what groups you were in last time, return to them. I’m not going to waste time testing you to see if you’re still prepared for weapon related combat again if I already decided it before. You and how you handle those spars will tell me if you need to be knocked back down to hand-to-hand. So, unlike your warm-ups take this shit seriously unless you want to spend time somewhere you don’t want to be any longer. Not gone bother me at all, I’m not the one who has to do it,” she said.

Nothing else needed to be said after that because they’d built a routine and she didn’t have to tell them every detail of how they should proceed. Seeing as Saturdays were just for her to watch she lived by the philosophy that she needed to interfere only if someone was doing something wrong or too dangerous for themselves or others. They were there to kick each other’s ass, but not send each other to the hospital or accidentally kill someone. Though there was one guy who’d tried to do that on purpose, he'd been dealt with accordingly and they didn’t have to worry about encountering him again.

As they got into their groups and started their spars Maia walked around the room watching them. She didn’t utter a word and kept her face as neutral as possible so they didn’t get self-conscious or something. One time she’d frowned and one of the people on the mat paused mid takedown because they thought it indicated they’d done something wrong. It made no sense seeing as she’d been looking at the mat across from them, but she knew it was better just to maintain nonchalance or neutrality.

And that helped her get through most of the session just fine. Everyone did what they were supposed to and when she did need to say something they quickly corrected themselves.

That didn’t mean they did well though. Quite a few had gotten worse from the last time and she knew they hadn’t been practicing like they should have. The mistakes they made were basic or specific to what they’d been taught during the last actual training session. Those mistakes got worse as time went on because they were tired, but they were all the same nonetheless. None of them pushed through the exhaustion to ensure their victory and if they were on top they lost to their opponent.

“Okay. Br-”

Before she could get the second word out Yoongi appeared by her side with a bored expression on his face, though his eyes didn’t match it. There was a hint of irritation but not enough to alarm her. Though it should have and then she would’ve had the time to escape.

“You’re going to be replaced with someone else, we have a meeting to attend,” he said.

“What? Why?” she asked.

There was no meeting for the next few days and she couldn’t imagine what Lilith needed that was so urgent. That was her thought process until her brain started functioning properly and she realized it wasn’t with Lilith - or it wasn’t only with Lilith.

“You have got to be kidding me?”

Yoongi shook his head and frowned for a moment. Then he took a step back and motioned to her replacement so he would step forward. She wanted to say no or she’d come once she finished but she knew it would start a whole thing and wasn’t in the mood.

Sighing she turned back to the humans who all had stopped when she tried speaking earlier.

“Okay, John here is going to take over for me since I’m needed elsewhere. You still have two hours to go and since I’d prefer you spend it working on what you need to I’m changing the groups around some. Quite a few of you just aren’t doing what needs to be done and clearly aren’t ready to be on weapons. Which means that until you show me that you are up to snuff you won’t be doing any missions that require them.”

Maia paused so she could point out the people and motion them to head over to the other mats where hand to hand happened. There were various emotions over their faces, but she didn’t care, they weren’t ready. After they moved she pointed to a few who could move to weapons and then turned to John to go over things.

Once done John went about instructing people on what to do and she turned to leave but stopped when a hand touched her shoulders. She turned to see the twins staring her down with displeased expressions.

“Yes?” she asked.

Nothing was said for a few seconds and then Erica blurted out, “Why did you move us? We were doing everything right, it was just a few mistakes here and there. And then the ban on weapon related missions. Isn’t that taking it too far? We’ve been doing them just fine until this point.”

“They weren’t just a few mistakes and even then they were simple ones. If you are forgetting what to do here or not trying, how can I or anyone else expect you to do well out there when faced with real danger? And you doing it before means nothing because people change. Mentalities change. One day you can do what needs to be done and the next you hesitate or just can’t force yourself to. That puts everyone at risk, including yourselves. Get better at it in training and then you can go back. That’s it,” she paused glancing at an impatient Yoongi. “Now go train and do better. I have to go.”

There was no awaiting a reply, she turned on her heel and headed towards Yoongi. From there they used the shadows to transport themselves to Hell.

By the time they arrived in the meeting room everyone was already seated. Yoongi moved to take his place next to Sama’el and Maia took her sweet time to get over to the table. Her movements clearly annoyed the regents, but she didn’t care about how bothered they were about her behavior.

“Why am I being pulled away from training for an impromptu meeting?” she asked as she sat between her father and Lilith.

Her question garnered some scoffing and mumbles about how the humans were less important from a few regents. That made her turn her head to look at each of them, brow raised and expression daring them to say something else. Naturally, none of them were inclined to repeat themselves or utter another word about what she’d said.

Regents were big and bad until she showed that none of their bullshit would slide with her. Then they clammed up and would talk about it later when she wasn’t around like children.

“We needed to meet about new possible regents like we discussed before,” Lucifer said, pulling her attention to him.

Maia laughed. “The meeting that’s been rescheduled six times in almost two weeks? Okay.”

Though she would usually take it further and ask a million questions there was a large part of her not in the mood for the back and forth. She knew that for the most part her temper would’ve stayed in check and it wouldn’t have crossed a line, but there was no need for her to be there longer than necessary.

When a few seconds passed Lucifer realized that was all he would get and proceeded with his spiel. It was the same thing he’d said at the last meeting about needing a regent who would fit well and that the candidates needed to be good and ready to start immediately. There was also something about how things were off balance because of someone not being properly connected to the circle for so long.

A whole lot of stuff she knew and didn’t care to listen to again but still gave her attention to because if she didn’t want to be an ass and miss something. Missing something could bring on consequences that weren’t bad, but annoying. Most of them being her father wanting to have a long talk, something she avoided like the plague. The mere idea sent a chill down her spine and caused her stomach to churn. It also brought some of her rage to the surface, which she promptly shut down before it could spiral out of her control.

Being lost in her own head, while listening to him go on paid off though. By the time she’d calmed herself back to neutrality - with a hint of agitation - he was done and the floor was open to the regents.

“I believe that Seth could be a good choice for this, he is a bit hesitant, but I think that once he sees how things work he’d be on board. He has the drive for this kind of role,” the second circle regent said.

That made Maia scoff and she could’ve stopped herself and didn’t.

Before anyone could question her or say something about her little outburst her mouth was open and words spilled out.

“Seth would never agree to this. He enjoys being in the midst of battle, not hiding down here all day with no real chance of ever coming to the surface. The man literally named his battle axe victory and takes care of it as if it’s his child. My bad, takes care of him as if he’s his son. Yes, shockingly his battle axe isn’t female. He would behead Yoongi if he thought he could if it would ensure him his place as Sama’el’s right hand. He was humoring you if he said maybe or you didn’t ask the right questions. Though the chance of you just ignoring him saying no is also a possibility.”

Silence fell upon the group and then she saw the regent exhale before withdrawing his possible candidate. And goodness did Maia wish that would be the only one to do something like that, but somehow it was most of them. They all chose fallen who were very battle driven or who they could easily manipulate and mold the way they wanted. Even their backups - if they had one - were those who fit that criteria. Or they were someone just as conniving as them.

“Okay, did you all have some sort of meeting and decide you wanted to choose the worst possible people for the job? This can’t possibly be a coincidence,” she said just as another bad choice was announced.

Everyone - accept Yoongi and Sama’el - looked at her in shock. There was also some irritation in their expressions, but she didn’t care much about that. What she wanted to see was how on the nose she was and as she scanned each of the regent’s faces she could tell something was up. The problem was she couldn’t pinpoint it and couldn’t accuse them of anything else. Being wrong in guessing what they were up to would make her whole argument that they met up to discuss it null and void. And she hated having to reconvince her father or Lilith of anything.

“Maia, you’re finding flaws with all the choices. No one is going to be perfect so we need to listen to these options. You need to take a step back and if you must go cool off then do so and then come back. We don’t have time to waste on this. We need to choose someone,” Lucifer said.

“We can’t just choose anyone. That’s how we end up with this nonsense. Would you prefer that we chose someone unfit and we have a repeat of how we got here or they fuck everything up down here? Is it that unmanageable that you can’t handle a longer wait?”

By that point Maia turned to face Lucifer fully. He stared back at her with bright blue eyes that fit well with the very pale white man he’d taken the form of. They weirded her out for a second and then she refocused on them as she gauged his mood, which wasn’t pleased. Of course, he didn’t like her questioning the people he’d hand-picked like that so he wouldn’t be happy.

“We need-”

However, Lucifer didn’t get far with whatever he planned to say.

“Maia is right. We know first-hand how picking the wrong person in a rush works out for us. We did it with third circle four millennia ago and that was a shit show. Took us years to undo the damage done by simple negligence. How long would it take to do it this time if it’s the same issue or something worse? Everyone needs to think this through and give better options. We can better organize to get everything back in balance,” Lilith said.

That brought a weird silence to the room. There was tension, but also awkwardness. Well awkward for everyone except Maia. She was happy to have someone back her and it being Lilith made it all the sweeter. Lucifer hated being up against both of them because it meant that something was wrong with his argument that he wasn’t seeing. Or refused to see in most cases. Knowing he was slowly crumbling inside as he reassessed amused Maia.

She turned her head to look at Lilith and offer a small smile, which was returned, before she looked eyes with her father again. He was still displeased, but she could see the lightbulb come on.

“Fine,” he mumbled.

From there he addressed the others, telling them about how they had one more chance to pick fallen who would be suited for the role. How if they messed up again there would be a problem on their hands and their positions would come into question. They all looked scared and pissed off, though they reserved the latter emotion for when they glanced Maia’s way.

All she did was smile at them and listen as they were told to stop acting like dipshits. It felt so good.


	19. Chapter 19

Naturally, Maia wanted to complain and beg that any hangouts would happen at her apartment or the twins’, both places where she could relax and even drift to sleep at some point. But she knew that an understanding friend would realize that she’d not gone out with them for a while and that hanging out at home was all they did when they did connect. So, her choices were to be a shitty friend or give in just that once. And she chose the latter despite how much of her didn’t want to.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t drag her feet once she and Yoongi pulled up to the bar that the twins chose. It wasn’t her thing and it was one of those fallen and human gang member kinds. There was always something popping off at them and she didn’t have the patience to be there, so surely she didn’t want to deal with people who couldn’t hold their tempers because of petty squabbles.

And goodness were they always petty.

By the time they reached the entrance Maia stopped and released a deep exhale.

“Do you think it’s too late to at least offer that we go somewhere else?” she asked.

Yoongi laughed, stepping up beside her.

“We’re already here,” he said.

He wasn’t wrong so she nodded and with one dramatic sigh she pushed the door to the place open and walked in. Though the regret hit instantly.

The bar reeked of alcohol and greasy food, but not the good kind. It made her stomach churn and she waved her hand in front of her face as if she could fan it all away. And her nose wasn’t the only thing assaulted. Music blasted through the speakers and though it wasn’t the loudest thing in the world it sounded like someone slipped the staff their SoundCloud account so that their shitty version of what she assumed was EDM could be played.

It was like nails on a chalkboard.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long to get used to the awful sound. By the time she and Yoongi weaved amongst the people and found the twins she found it bearable. Or maybe they’d changed songs to something that wasn’t horrible. Her focus had been on blocking it out and she never truly registered what the song sounded like so she was truly at a loss. But it didn’t matter because it was over and she had one less thing to worry too much about.

Nor was it something she wondered about for long because the twins spotted her as they approached.

“Mai Mai,” they screamed and unison.

She winced at that because somehow they’d managed to be louder than the music and higher pitched than the screeching it contained. Which told her that they were already several drinks in and tipsy. Another thing that confirmed it was the way they ran from where they stood next to a booth of people they were conversing with to pull her into a hug so tight that she found it hard to breathe. Something she tried to tell them, but they either couldn’t hear her or chose to ignore her.

Things reached a point where she was going to be forced to remove them herself and she didn’t want to, so she frantically turned her head and made eye contact with Yoongi. Who already had a drink in his hand and had watched on with a stupid smile as she was near passing out. When he caught the glare on her face he finally stepped in.

“Okay, guys let her breathe,” he said.

And in an instant the twins parted and allowed her room to take in the air. It was trash air and she’d prefer anything else to breathe in, but she had to take what was available. It was that or hold her breath until she could get outside and since the twins hugging her made her a little lightheaded that was an unwise course of action.

Once back to normal she turned her attention towards the three dweebs who watched her with careful smiles. It was as if they were waiting for her to leave or something, but she merely rolled her eyes and moved past them to speak to the waitress near their table. She ordered some random mixed drink with vodka and requested it be in the tallest glass that they had available.

Getting through hours of being stuck in that bar required some sort of liquid courage; even if that courage was a placebo since it would take way too much to drink to get her tipsy let alone drunk.

It was the thought that counted.

When she turned her attention back to the dorks they were huddled together talking to each other.

“Yoongi, I didn’t think that you were going to come. But you and Mai Mai are always together. You’re stealing my best friend from me mister,” Erica said.

Alex nodded vigorously. “Yeah. You two are always together. You better not be corrupting her. Or bumping uglies.”

Though the words were ridiculous - made clear by the way Yoongi threw his head back and laughed - they were also so serious that for a moment Maia wasn’t entirely sure if he meant them or not. But when Alex’s face didn’t change from the furrowed brows and frown she was beyond sure that maybe he was tipsier than she’d led herself to believe.

So, she inserted herself into the conversation.

“Uh, yeah we’re not always together, never say bumping uglies again, and also that’s none of your business.”

For a moment Yoongi pulled it together to speak. “You forgot that I could have not possibly corrupted you. If anything, it was the other way around.”

“Yes and tha… Hey!”

Offended by the comment Maia stopped part way through to slap Yoongi’s arm with the back of her hand. In no universe would she be at fault for any corruption of him. He was older than her and in the fallen angel game longer by a few years.

“Jerk,” she murmured.

After that Yoongi tried to put his arm around her and used that adorable smile of his to get her to forgive him, but she maneuvered around him. A seat had opened up and she plopped down into it. Which was perfect timing because the waitress returned with her drink.

Seeing as the twins had gone to talk to others and enjoy themselves while she’d been having her little tiff with Yoongi she planned to sit by herself. Or sit mostly by herself, because not too long after she sat the person across from her left to go dance and Yoongi slid right in. She intended to ignore him, but he was persistent and eventually caught her eye.

A pouted formed on his lips as she took a long drink of her glass - which was fucking massive.

“You didn’t get anything for me?” he asked.

Maia scoffed. “You managed to order and get a drink while the twins nearly suffocated me. Don’t try that.”

That didn’t stop him though. He pouted more and his eyes were so gentle and pleading that if she didn’t know what he was up to they would be believable. Though knowing that it was all fake didn’t stop her from giving in.

With a huff she pushed the glass towards him a little too aggressively. The liquid inside sloshed and almost spilled over the side and onto the table, not that it mattered much since the thing was sticky long before they got there. And honestly was probably never not sticky.

Despite that Yoongi picked up the glass and instead of taking a few sips or drinking a third of it, he downed the glass in five seconds leaving her with nothing. Maia stared at him mouth agape as he set it back down and smiled at her as if he’d done nothing wrong. Which made her reach over to slap his hand and then point towards the bar with an annoyed expression.

The drink wasn’t even that good, but it was the principle of the thing. He’d drank more than he was offered and he knew that, so he would get her more.

And more is definitely what he got.

Once he saw her expression he got up to go get the drinks, but not only did he return with what she’d had but also a round of tequila shots and what he claimed was the bar’s version of a long island that looked very radioactive.

Maia was prepared to tell him she wouldn’t partake in whatever he planned, but there was that spark in his eyes. It was there whenever he got competitive or wanted to challenge someone to something. Of course, she could have brushed him off regardless of that, but something inside of her couldn’t back down. And that was without him even having to utter a word.

So, instead Maia gripped a shot glass and leveled him with a stare. Yoongi did the same and then a second later it began. They both threw back shot after short and then once they finished they downed their drinks. It was hard not to wince watching him drink down whatever concoction that was, but she maintained focus on her own drinking. Which did her well since she slammed down the glass about half a second before he did.

She was the victor of their stupid little competition.

And for some reason that win filled her with an immense amount of energy and a need to get rid of it all. Getting so excited that she wanted to participate in the bar’s activities because of something like that was weird, but she was there to have fun with her friends and despite her displeasure she planned to do it.

Which is what she did.

Winking at Yoongi she rose from her seat and headed over to where the twins danced with a group of randoms. Upon her arrival they paused to cheer and then got right back to it. Maia was awkward to start, but she found a groove within the music and moved with it as best she could in a somewhat packed space. She danced by herself or with one of the twins, though at some point Yoongi slipped in behind her to join. Her mind was so within the moment that she didn’t notice, but her body was so comfortable with Yoongi that she didn’t have to look to know it was him when arms wrapped around her waist.

Plus, if it had been a random Yoongi would’ve swooped in rather quickly to get them off her before either of them could truly register it.

For a short time Maia was able to relax fully. To have fun with no consequences looming and she loved it so much. Loved being around people whom she loved despite not caring much about being around the strangers that were also there. Not that she hated other fallen or the humans at the bar, but she preferred being with her people or around people where she knew a lot of bullshit wouldn’t occur. That didn’t matter as they danced though. Nothing really mattered.

Life didn’t like that though. Maia could never be happy or content for long. Something always had to go and fuck it all up.

Things had died down on the dance floor as people went back to their tables or left. So that meant there was more room and clearer sightlines. Which was good because Maia didn’t like not being able to see her environment. But it was also bad because some man saw Alex dancing with a girl and was none too pleased.

“What are you doing?” a voice boomed from a foot or so away from Maia.

She turned to see who it was from, but they moved so quickly that they were already in Alex’s face before anyone truly processed what the hell was going on.

“Dancing,” Alex answered, clearly confused but also annoyed.

The man - a fallen - wasn’t sated or amused by that answer. If anything the response made him more upset, his energy shifted to something more hostile.

He scoffed. “You don’t encroach on my territory. I was with her first, which means she's mine for the taking.”

Maia cringed hearing him speak as if the woman was some sort of property to be owned; especially since it seemed he hadn’t known her before that night.

Alex also appeared to not care for the way he said it, because he laughed in his face.

“Are we in elementary school? Middle school? Fighting over a toy? Last I knew she was an autonomous being. Which means free to do what she wanted and if that meant dancing with me, then so be it,” Alex said.

Silence followed and it lasted so uncomfortably long that Maia felt the need to step forward, but when the fallen turned to leave she stopped. Though she shouldn’t have because he whirled right back around and hemmed Alex up by his collar. Alex was taller and bigger than him, but the strength was on his side.

Which meant that all joy drained from Maia’s body.

“Put him down and leave,” she said, voice stern.

There was no reaction and that only worsened her mood, which had descended quite far.

“Do not make me repeat myself again,” she said calmly.

That one did the trick because he released Alex and immediately turned to leave. A few of his buddies went with him, which led to a prolonged silence as everyone watched them go. Once they were out of the place Maia turned to level every onlooker with a glare and they quickly went back to minding their own business.

“I can handle my own shit, Maia. I don’t need you stepping in and benching me all over again.” Alex said.

The aggression in his voice surprised her, as did the anger still on his face when she turned to look at him. But what made everything weirder was that Erica stood off to the side of him and looked at her the same way.

Maia raised a brow. “Benching you again? What do you mean by that?”

A groan, a sigh, and several other theatrical reactions escaped Alex before she got an answer.

“Ever since you’ve gotten involved we’ve been benched. Everything has changed for us. The frequency we get called in is less. We get to go out on missions from time to time, but we’re stuck doing errands and little work. And if we go on those missions they way they operate is different suddenly because we aren’t allowed to be in direct combat. Or we get kicked off missions because we aren’t up to par in training sessions despite having gone on so many and handling ourselves just fine. We’re basically on desk duty at this point. That crap isn’t all of a sudden nor is it a coincidence, it's you,” he shouted.

A response was at the tip of her tongue, but Alex hadn’t finished.

“We’re adults, Maia. We don’t need you to watch out for us. We don’t need to be coddled and protected!”

Anger surfaced in her quickly and despite the comfort in staying in place when faced with a rage filled fallen, something about what Alex said and Erica cosigned with her little head nods set her off a little more.

Harsh laughter escaped her as she moved close enough that she could see both their faces, but still invaded their space. “And that’s where you’re wrong. You see, you two idiots are always itching for a fight. Ready to dive into anything that appears and you don’t think twice about it. Just now you were waiting for him to hit you, to give you cause. You have that stupid little voice in your head that asks for you to spring into action and it gets you into more trouble than needed.”

“That doesn’t mean…” Erica tried to interject.

“I don’t want to hear about what it doesn’t mean. I’m not going to listen to another one of your got damn excuses about you being adults. I tried to allow things to continue how they were before I arrived. I warned you countless times about being safe and the dangers of what could go wrong. I told you to stay on top of your game during training sessions. You chose not to listen to me. To do riskier shit. To slack off. I will do what I must to ensure the two of you are well and safe. If that means benching you or locking you away for the rest of your lives I will do it. Someone needs to keep you in check or you'll end up hurt or dead.”

Her voice was low and strained as she went on her little rant. At some point she started to move closer to them, almost toe to toe with Alex but Yoongi pulled her back some.

She took a deep breath before speaking again, her voice cracked before she could even begin. “This isn’t your average gang, and this isn’t a human war. This is a war that holds supernatural beings that will create a death worse than any rival gang could ever imagine possible. You two are tall, loud mouths who sometimes wear colors louder than highlighters, who can be picked out of a line a mile away. I don’t need you walking around campus, or at a party or at the store and being attacked because you’re familiar. I cannot be there every waking second of the day and though I can’t stop you from doing what you do I can lessen your exposure. I can ensure that I’ve done nothing to put you giant idiots in danger of getting hurt. I will not lose you.”

In an instant the twins’ glares shifted and turned into wide eyed stares. Maia could see them thinking over what had just occurred and the mild remorse in their eyes. But she didn’t want to deal with it.

She needed to escape.

So, after putting on a neutral expression she turned on her heel and made her exit. There was no stopping for her name being called or the hand that gripped onto her wrist as she left them. Staying in there wasn’t an option.

Once in the cold evening air and at her car she felt like she could breathe. Her emotions hit all at once and she regretted blowing up like that there, but she’d needed to get it out of her. If she’d brought them outside or said they’d talk later it wouldn’t have happened and shit would’ve been awkward for eternity.

Not that it wouldn’t be awkward after that.

A moment or two passed before they came outside. Yoongi standing behind them and keeping his pace slow, as if standing watch for if either of them decided to escape. When they reached Maia they both gave small forced smiles and stared at her. It made her uncomfortable, but they had something to say so she waited for them to speak.

Erica spoke first. “We both know you’re just going into big sister mode and we know why, but it can be frustrating sometimes.”

Maia sighed. “I get that and I apologize for making you feel that way. For blowing up in there. But you’re both so damn hardheaded and you take on more than you can handle. And I cannot have something happening to you.”

They nodded and then Alex spoke up.

“I’m sorry we let it fester. We should have come to you when we first realized we were upset about it. Would have saved all this,” he said.

After a nod from Maia they all went silent and it lasted long enough that Yoongi felt the need to step in.

“How about we just head back to Maia’s and spend the night there? Shameless and pizza?” he asked.

The three of them stared at each other and then nodded. Then they all moved to get into the car. But before Maia could slip into the passenger seat Erica tapped her shoulder, when she turned there was a genuine smile on her face, though it seemed sad.

“We good?” she asked.

“We good.”

With that they got in the car and Yoongi pulled off.

The problem was that though they were good, things still felt off. At least for Maia.


	20. Chapter 20

As much as Maia hated to admit, the twin’s words stuck with her more than she liked. She’d be in the middle of the most basic task and her brain would drift off to what they’d said. But it never stopped there. At some point she’d spiral farther and start analyzing her every move or thought while in their presence during any mission related stuff. She searched her head for any clue of if she’d taken anything too far and though one would hope that it stopped there it didn’t. Looking at your past actions always brought up more things than you wanted to see.

It was something she tried hard to shake from and was successful for a while, until they were all out on a mission again. Despite her moving them back down to hand to hand they’d still been asked to come along for a quick drug buy situation. There would be weapons on hand and though she truly did see their previous training with them as sloppy she said nothing. Not only was it not her call to make for who went on the mission, but she couldn’t stop the voice in her head that said she should let them be.

No matter how understanding they’d been, it didn’t mean they’d enjoy being “benched” again because of her. If something went wrong she just needed to accept it and help as best she could.

That was the mantra that played in her head, though it didn’t work well.

In fact, that little chant made her miss most of the briefing. When she zoned back into the conversation Seth was giving her a look and finishing his spiel.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes. Remember you do not want to fuck this shit up. We don’t have time for that. Don’t get antsy. Don’t act nervous. And don’t seem too fucking cocky. We can’t have them thinking that something is going on. Especially because there is nothing up. We are doing a simple buy and that is that. Don’t make this more fucking complex then it needs to be. And if you fuck this up somehow I will knock your ass into next year and you’ll go back to running small errands. Actually, fuck that, you’ll go back to training with the newbies. You got me?” he said.

Without hesitation everyone answered with a resounding yes. No one dared to grunt or show any kind of expression that would indicate annoyance of confusion, though Maia could see some people’s lips purse here and there.

Seth truly led by fear and she couldn’t be mad at that. It was actually quite amusing.

Once they’d agreed he’d dismissed the group and they all got into their position, which meant in the car until the dealer came. Though one of them stood outside the door in the back as some sort of security detail.

When that was done Seth turned to Maia and the other fallen who’d come to stand watch.

“You know where you’re supposed to be, so stay there and stay alert. If something unsuspected comes your way then you react and communicate. You don’t wait for the go ahead because who the fuck knows how long that’ll take. Action is important here, especially if a few angel pricks decide to pass through. Got it?”

Again, nothing but quick words of agreement before they were shooed off to their posts. Which left just Seth and Maia.

He stared at her with a look of annoyance and then sighed, his hand rubbing down his face.

“Can’t be bothered to listen to my briefings?” he asked.

Maia shrugged. “I could, but I heard it all already.”

Naturally, she would never tell him the real reason she’d drifted off into her own world. He didn’t need to know what she was thinking about nor did he need to think her head wasn’t in the game. She knew how to focus herself during a mission, so there would be no issue if something went down that was out of the norm.

Smiling, she reached up to pat his shoulder as she walked past him. “Don’t worry so much, you have to play a tough and perpetually annoyed buyer but if your face is like that for too long they’ll think something went wrong. Don’t want them shooting first and asking questions later. Or worse, calling off the buy.”

“How is that worse than them shooting first?” he shouted after her.

Not even glancing back, she shrugged and walked through a shadow to her position. Unlike the others who were using the high ground of surrounding buildings Maia took to the darkness near a building several feet away from the exchange. The plan was for her to lurk there like some creature who hid under your bed and though she was tired of playing supervisor she didn’t mind it so much that time. It would give her a better view of things and test how much she could sit between the shadows and normal darkness. She didn’t want to be fully submerged in the shadows with a peak into the real world. Nor did she want to be mostly in the real world and risk being seen and setting things off. There needed to be a medium and she got to test that out.

Two minutes passed before they got warning of the car and then another minute before it came into sight.

It was your standard tinted, bullet proof window SUV that everyone who was up to no good drove. Even their chosen vehicle for the mission was like that, though the dealer’s was more of a navy blue then black. She guessed they wanted to stand out or something, but she didn’t allow herself to get too caught up on why they chose a color slightly less dark. It didn’t really matter, though her brain would beg to differ.

“Don’t fuck this up,” Seth hissed into his comm one last time before getting out of the car.

That made Maia laugh a little, but otherwise she muttered something in agreement and went on alert. She was supposed to keep her eyes on what was happening in front of her, but she made sure to skim the skies every now and then. Didn’t want angels to swoop in unexpectedly under her watch.

After the dealer and her buddies exited the car things went smoothly. Everyone appeared calm on both sides and nothing about expression, body language or energy that alerted her to things going south. Everyone seemed too relaxed though and that made her a tad nervous. Those kinds of things never had people like that, they were always worried or on alert, which led her to believe something had to be wrong.

“Watch them closely please. Something is off about this whole exchange. No one smiles that damn much and looks genuine during something like this. Watch the guard at the back of the van extra close please,” Maia said into her comm.

There were subtle nods from those in the midst of the transaction and some grunts from those guarding from up above in response. Though her brain wanted to linger on the fact that they couldn’t just give her a straight answer she pushed it off.

She knew that she didn’t really care, even if something told her that she should. Stupid doubt liked to creep in at random and she had no need for it.

Thankfully, those thoughts weren’t at the forefront and didn’t stick around for long anyway. Because the next thing she knew was that there was a nervous twitch from the guard at the back of the van and Seth was pointing it out. Everyone stilled as the dealer turned to look at the man in question. She said nothing and from that angle Maia couldn’t see her face, so she wasn’t sure about what was going on.

“Can someone with a visual tell me what’s up? Are they mouthing anything? What’s she looking like? Angry? Up to something? I need something,” she said.

There was silence from her own comms for too long and she was ready to ask again, but then there came a huff.

“She looks pissed, but something is off. I can tell that there is somethin’ else going on, but I don’t know if that somethin’ is good or bad. I’ll come in closer and keep a watch on both of them if you need me to?” Vanessa, a fallen, said.

Maia would’ve said yes immediately, but it wasn’t her show so she couldn’t. Her eyes shifted to where Seth stood and he did a finger wiggle thing along with a head nod which told her to proceed. She uttered a quick response telling Vanessa to do that before submerging herself into the shadows to move.

There was something that bothered her besides the dealer and her guard, something she needed to get a better look at before saying a word.

When she reemerged, she was on the opposite side of the exchange and up on higher ground. She still used the darkness to hide herself since guards were constantly looking around, but she didn’t hide herself too much. Her eyes moved to where Seth stood and then slowly they followed the line of sight up to where she’d seen movement on a building a little away from there. At first she found nothing, but then her eyes fluffy adjusted and she could make out the shape of a person. Then she could make out the shape of a sniper rifle.

There was no doubt in her head that they weren’t just there as a precaution because the weapon wouldn’t have been steadily focused on Seth. Oh no, they’d come ready to use that regardless of how well things went or not.

Sighing, she spoke into her comm. “What I’m going to say is going to make things nerve wrecking, but you cannot react to it that way. They brought a sniper and he’s directed onto Seth. Obviously, Seth would be fine if he pulled the trigger, but that is enough of a diversion for them to come after all of you and for the sniper to get off more shots. This isn’t a wait and see type of thing, they’re shooting no matter what. I just don’t kno-” she was cut off by the sound of the weapon discharging.

“Fuck, move Seth!” she screamed.

Everything went to shit after that moment.

The sound of her voice had carried so the guards looked around and Seth’s ducking before the weapon went off definitely signaled they’d been found out. Everyone drew weapons and Maia heard a few of them go off, but that hadn’t mattered in the moment. Her mind immediately went to disabling the sniper because they could do more damage from their hiding spot.

Through the shadows she went, a scimitar being pulled free from one as she exited it onto the same rooftop. She wasn’t an idiot and wasn’t in the mood for a fight with a person with a gun, so she appeared directly behind them and used the hilt of her sword to slam into their head. They went down rather easily and she knew they were out cold by the way their eyes rolled into the back of their head.

From there, she dismantled the rifle and scattered the pieces across the roof and then dumped all the bullets over the side of the building. Even if they’d managed to wake up and reorient themselves in time there would’ve been a struggle to get all the pieces. Then there would be no bullets to shoot either.

With that handled, she’d turned her attention back down to the ground. Though a few shots had been left off there was more hand to hand fighting than anything. Weapons laid strewn across the ground which told her they’d been able to get them out of the hands of the dealer’s people. Which was good since no one came into it wanting for them to die, though they all also knew that they had to do what needed to be done if things went awry.

Though they had it handled, something about how things were going had her debate if they needed her assistance. Well, it wasn’t just something, more like watching Erica struggle to overtake the dealer. It made her uneasy and she felt herself forming a shadow to go down, but then stopped remembering she needed to let her do her thing. And that worked fine for her, until of course Alex entered the picture. He’d taken a hit to the chin and that sent him stumbling. He bumped into the dealer who whirled around to hit him after kicking his sister.

Before Maia could process she was down there and stepping free of the shadows, but then she came back into control. Mid-step she remembered what had happened at the bar and at training. The way they felt benched by her actions and how upset that made them. It was obviously something she’d argued against and felt sure in what she’d said, but as she watched them regain their bearing a little and fight back she couldn’t help but agonize over it. If she stepped in as they were handling it then she’d get them angry at her, but injury was more than guaranteed. But that was part of what they signed up for before she’d arrived back on the scene and depriving them of that just because they were close wasn’t a good thing to do. She would never do that for Yoongi because she knew he could handle angels or anyone else who came his way. And the fight the twins were in was with other humans, so there was an even playing field.

Those were the thoughts that plagued her endlessly. She tried to brush them off, but the voice in her head telling her to get it together wasn’t strong enough. A rarity occurred keeping her in a frozen state. Which proved to be not great.

Unbeknownst to her someone had noticed her and perceived a threat despite her state. They’d managed to get ahold of a knife and tried to plunge it into her chest, but they’d been stopped by Seth’s hand. The feeling of them being close to her snapped her out of the trance she was in and put her into action, her fist flew and connected with the man’s face knocking him out.

Seth stared her down after that, a weird look on his face that she couldn’t place. She assumed he planned to explode on her and opened her mouth to apologize, but he shook his head and whispered something.

“I don’t know what the fuck just happened, but let’s not let it happen again. I have to tell Lilith, but no one else saw, so no one else will know,” he said.

Maia didn’t waste time nodding and muttering an apology for his hand, which he waved off.

The fighting had ended during her little momentary lapse and everyone was packing it up. Grabbing the drugs from their car and pushing them through the shadows. That was fine until she didn’t see the twins and then after a few frantic seconds she found them catching their breath and standing over their combatants. Both people looked horrible and that told her all she needed to know.

Though it was still something that took time to get adjusted to.

###

Briefing Lilith went like it always did. There was one with everyone and then one with the leads. And though Maia wished that was it, there was another one and it started before Seth could vacate the room and just as Yoongi entered it to ask something.

“What the hell does he mean you froze up? Why were you not in the headspace to handle this? This job is important and needs all your focus when in the middle of a mission, Maia? You can’t just drift off in the middle of it endangering yourself and others in the process. What if it had hit you? What if one of the humans had been the one to step in and got a much more severe injury? What would you be saying then? How would you feel having to report back to me about how you caused such a screw up? Or your father?

“I mean come on, you’re smarter than that. You’ve been in worse situations than that. This should be a cake walk. A breeze. Something that’s in and out. Is this something I should be worried about when it comes to your test? Do we need to push it back since you’re obviously unable to focus just like before and will fail? My goodness we don’t need another of your fuck ups pushing us back.”

That last part had everyone in shock, even Lilith. It was too far and not true as to what happened. Had Maia frozen up there? Had she hesitated? Yes to both, but that wasn’t why it had gone wrong and she’d never been prepared to react to a situation like that.

A huge part of her argued that Lilith was just frustrated by the potential of Maia or anyone else getting seriously hurt. That she said it because she didn’t want another slip up like that during a mission. That she was merely disappointed that Maia got distracted during something as simple as that.

But Maia knew Lilith.

The fallen said what she thought. Even if that thought wasn’t what she had in mind at that exact moment it was usually something that had popped in at some point in time. It was something that she’d told Maia when she was younger, because kid Maia realized that Lilith was bad at secrets and they came out at some point. Didn’t matter if it was seconds or a millennium later.

Which meant from any point from the first test to that exact moment Lilith had seen that incident as nothing, but a fuck up on Maia’s part. She didn’t think anything else was a factor in what could’ve been the girl’s demise.

A humorless laugh escaped Maia after a minute or so of tense silence passed between the four of them. Lilith opened her mouth, but closed it immediately after. Maia knew she wanted to apologize or explain herself, but there were no words for that. There wasn’t much of a chance to come back from that at all.

Of course, it happened just as Maia gave her a chance.

“Well, this has been enlightening. I’m going home, unless you have something else to yell at me?” she asked, though it wasn’t a real question.

Lilith shook her head and Maia nodded, turning to leave the room after giving each man a forced smile. She moved so quickly she barely noticed Yoongi glaring at Lilith and definitely didn’t notice the disapproving look that Seth gave the fallen in charge.

Hurt and tired filled her anyway, so she wasn’t in the mood to see or hear them scold the woman on her behalf anyway.


	21. Chapter 21

Maia surged forward, a scream escaping her lips as she swung both of her scimitars at the demon she sparred. The right one hit into the demon’s side and the other was blocked, but that was enough for her. She pulled her blade free and swung it but stopped short and used the other to strike him again.

Every swing was filled with anger, but they weren’t sloppy. She knew how emotion could get out of control and throw her off her game, but she didn’t want that. Her goal was to release all that pent-up rage and to channel it into her every move. To use it to make her go longer, harder, and faster. Which was needed when she was up with a demon. Especially one that didn’t necessarily feel the pain she inflicted and hungered for the fight to go on. Slacking only ended in her getting hurt if she felt too much.

So, she kept going at him with a calm-ish mindset. Her every move was to match his or be a step ahead. Something that got her ass handed to her for the first hour or so of the spar, until she was able to rein herself in and truly take in what he was doing. By no means was he obvious or very repetitive, but she was able to pick up on some things with the slight movements he made. It meant paying close attention, but that was preferable than all the cuts he’d managed to make. Or when he managed to kick her in the stomach way harder than needed and send her flying off the mat.

It was a rough situation, but she pushed through. Much to the chagrin of someone else.

“Maia, you need to take a break. You let me squirt water in your mouth for thirty seconds over an hour ago. You’ve been sparring on and off for 5. Your body can only take so much,” Yoongi said.

Naturally, she acted like she couldn’t hear him. Her and the demon had been in a sword lock and Maia couldn’t pull free without risking herself. After a stare down they both nodded and backed away to their respective sides of the mat. That didn’t last long though because Maia ran at him after taking a deep breath for maybe a second. Something that made her realize how tired she felt, but that was pushed aside quickly.

At least that was the plan until a loud clap stopped the demon in their tracks as they charged at her and then the next thing she knew he was gone. She was forced to slow down and then turned on her heel to face the cause of her interruption.

“Really?”

“Break. Now.”

He was the voice of reason and she may not have liked it at that moment, but she knew he was right.

After a momentary stare down she broke eye contact and moved over to where her stuff was beside the sparring mat. She plopped down onto the floor, ignoring the mild sting her butt felt, and grabbed her water bottle to down half of its contents. Well, that’s all she’d planned to drink, but a quick glance at Yoongi had her drinking the rest of it and handing the empty container to him.

Just as he’d done during her last break he left to refill it and returned promptly. From the look in his eyes she assumed he planned to make her drink more, but before he could say a word the banging of a door rang out. Both their attention shifted towards the source of the sound.

At the entrance of the room stood Lilith and her expression was neutral, but her posture stiff. It was as if her body warred between two ways to handle the approach. Obviously, she’d pissed off Maia, but everyone knew that sometimes you needed to just jump into the deep in when it came to getting her to forgive or listen to what needed to be said.

The thing was that Maia had already shed some of her anger and after a lecture from Yoongi she understood that dragging it out would cause more problems. Not that she didn’t before that, but she was hardheaded, so it would’ve taken her several days to give in if she hadn’t been talked into it.

“I’m guessing you want to talk,” Maia said.

Without missing a beat Lilith nodded and made her way further into the room, she took a careful seat next to Maia with a few inches between them. Yoongi was gone before either could even ask him for privacy and his presence was missed. It kept Maia somewhat grounded and would have allowed for a mediator, but the conversation never would’ve truly worked that way.

So, she sat there on the floor with Lilith for several minutes in silence until the fallen found her voice.

“I suppose I should start with an apology. I have many of those to issue, but I know how you feel about someone constantly saying they’re sorry, so I’ll boil it all down,” she paused, exhaling deeply before she continued. “In the past four or so years I have wronged you in many ways. First by not warning you of the potential threat to you. It didn’t matter that your father didn’t find it important to tell and didn’t want me to, I should have because at the end of the day it’s your life. Then again once you’d healed, I failed to talk some sense into him and comfort you in a way that didn’t make you feel alone. In a way that showed you that despite the mistakes we made you were still safe and protected with us. I let you leave without fighting and for years just waited until you found your way back instead of making an actual effort. Without checking up on you. Without ensuring you were okay besides the occasional fallen stalking you every now and then.

“And then I go and stick my foot in my mouth. Get wrapped up in whatever that was and say things that are false. Things a very frustrated me thought when you vanished and didn’t return after a week. Things that came and went so quickly it was like they were barely there at all. I have failed you in more ways than one Maia and for that I am extremely sorry.”

Silence after that was a bit tense, but not the kind that filled a room when Maia was close to exploding. It was the type of tension that came when someone was processing through feelings and trying to figure out the next steps.

Maia cleared her throat. “I was unfair when I exploded on you and Yoongi. I had every right to be angry because no one told me and I should have been told since it was my life on the line. But I placed more blame on both of you than was valid. Even as I yelled I knew when I’d taken it a step too far here or there, but I kept going anyway because I was so angry. So, hurt and upset. And I couldn’t unload on the person who deserved it most because he avoided me. Avoided what he could have stopped.”

About halfway through Maia’s voice cracked and her eyes watered, but the tears wouldn’t fall. She stopped talking to calm herself and Lilith moved closer, placing a reassuring hand on her thigh.

“Anyway, it was wrong of me to make so much of this your fault because it wasn’t. And I am sorry about that because no matter how much you upset me, you should only ever have to deal with the reaction that is only about you and not about what someone else did.”

Another moment of quiet and before Maia knew it she was pulled into a bear hug. It knocked the wind out of her and she wanted to pull away, but she let the woman hug her and even hugged her back. Though when a minute passed by she had to push her away.

“Okay, let’s not do all of that now,” Maia said.

Lilith pouted. “But I missed out on so many hugs.”

After pushing herself off the floor Maia turned to face Lilith and displayed an expression that could only be read as oh well.

“You’re just going to have to spread those out because I refuse to endure any hug as long as you’d want,” she said.

That only made Lilith pout more, but that pout morphed into a smile when Maia reached her hand out to help her up. And it was a smile Maia returned.

Things didn’t mend in an instant, but Lilith had made an effort from the moment Maia came back so their little talk was just what needed to happen to move past things officially. Something Maia was honestly happy to do.


	22. Chapter 22

The moment Maia showed up at her mother’s house she was put on cleaning duty, she’d been asked to go over every room that people would be in. It was as if they weren’t already up to par, something she didn’t dare say to her mother since she was already stressed about things being perfect for guests and also would give her that one look if she didn’t just do it. That motherly look that just chilled you to the bone and struck fear into your heart and mind.

Maia avoided that look always.

So, despite not wanting to sweat because she’d dressed nicely and done make up for once, she got to it. Headphones in ears and music blasting got her in the zone and she moved from one room to the next fairly quickly. And before she knew it everything was perfect and she went on to freshen up since she assumed the guests would arrive sooner rather than later. Because there was no way she’d allow a group of church folk to say a single word about her appearance being slightly disheveled and being right for once.

When she returned the time for the party to start had passed and none of the guests had arrived. And since she despised the idea of standing and waiting she made her way to the kitchen to see if there was anything else she could do.

“Can I help you with anything, mama?” she asked.

When her mother jumped a little she realized that she hadn’t made a sound as she entered. She had a habit of being unintentionally stealthy and tried to be mindful of that, but sometimes not even she caught onto that.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered while holding in laughter.

Not that her hiding the laughter helped anything. Her mother caught on quickly and turned to glare at her, which meant that her face smoothed out immediately and she swallowed the laughter. Though if she thought about it later she’d probably let out a giggle or two at the memory.

“No. For once everything is ready to go. All that will need to be done is bringing everything out once it’s time to eat. Go sit down somewhere or better yet greet people they should be here soon,” she said.

“Okay,” she turned to leave but was stopped.

“And I thought I told you to bring someone,” her mother said.

That made Maia freeze up, unsure of what to say in response. She wanted to tell her mother she did and who, but the urge to avoid the million questions right at that moment was much more apparent.

She turned to smile at her. “I did. They’ll be here a little later.”

For a moment her mother looked at her with narrowed eyes but seemed to accept her words as truth.

“Okay. Get out there.”

Maia nodded and headed out to the living room again. She barely escaped an inquisition and then she had to go greet people. Naturally, she didn’t want to but telling her mother that wasn’t a smart move.

By the time she got back out there Samantha and the twins had come down from their rooms dressed and ready to suffer. They all regarded each other with brief nods before the first of the guests filed in.

It was awkward and the longer she did it the more strained she felt. A happy disposition was all she could give though, most of the people present were Issac’s family. And most of them side eyed her regularly simply because she was the child of someone her mother so vehemently hated. They saw her as this weird outsider, someone to be cautious of. She didn’t need to give them more reason to deem her a devil child, even though it was an apt description.

After what felt like years they were relieved of door duty, but then Maia was moved somewhere far worse. Her mother wanted her to socialize, but instead of steering her to the church folk she pushed Maia into a group with Issac’s siblings. Unlike sweet Issac, they liked to judge everyone. And they put Samantha to shame.

“So, how’s school going for you? I hear you're almost done and planning to continue. That has to be a lot of money to think about paying back. Why not just get into the workforce?” Eric, Issac’s youngest sibling asked. His usual douche-baggery wafted off him in droves.

“It’s going quite well. These last few months have been tough, but I've gotten through it all with at least eighty percent and call that a win. Can't wait to start on my next degree.” Maia wasn’t going to give into his little attempts to put down her life choices.

“Yeah, but it's so much money these days. Why not just settle for the one and move along? It’ll take you years to pay off that debt,” Maxine, the older sister, chimed in.

Of course, it was a family affair. Maintaining her kindest smile the whole night was a true test. “I want to make sure that I can be stable in my ability to get and maintain a job. Besides I’m sure it puts a dent in my father's bank account to pay for my school, but he'll be okay.”

Jaws dropped and eyes widened.

“He pays for your schooling? All of it?” Mack, the oldest brother, asked.

“Since I started freshman year and until I finish.” That seemed to shock them even more. Off to the side Maia could hear the twins laugh, but when she turned and glared they acted extremely interested in something their great aunt said.

“Isn’t that a bit selfish? Allowing him to continue paying for something that isn’t even nec-” Before Mack could dig his own grave the doorbell rang.

Knowing who it was Maia moved to answer the door, but Samantha was faster.

“Anise, we have another guest,” Samantha said chirpily. It was the most excited Maia had ever heard her, which she didn’t like one bit.

After a few seconds Yoongi was dragged for all to see. Maia’s annoyance with Samantha subsided for a second once he was in view. Dressed in a fitted dark blue suit, brown shoes and with his hair pushed back he looked great. Which made Maia debate if she could truly fault Samantha for her reaction.

Before Maia could snap out of it and free him from her grip her mother turned around and saw him. She released a shocked gasp, eyes flickering between him and Maia before rushing forward and hugging him tight. Yoongi took it in stride, smiling and warmly returning the hug.

“Yoongi, I had no clue you were coming. Maia didn't say you were the friend coming,” she said once she finally pulled away.

“It was a surprise, I think. Though the fact that she said friend hurts my feelings. I thought we were better than that, lovie.”

Maia glared at him as her heart rate picked up in fear of her mother’s next move. She wanted to kick his ass, because he knew he wasn’t supposed to let that out, but of course he had to be a dick. He had to know the earful he’d get from her after everything was over.

Her mother whipped around to stare at her, eyes wide. She smiled so brightly Maia was sure that the corners of her mouth hurt. “You two are back together?”

Neither of them were given the chance to answer, because she dragged him over to Maia and then bombarded them with a series of questions. They’d get halfway through answering one question and she’d ask another. There was a point where Maia could see regret forming in Yoongi’s eyes, but he kept it from dominating his features. Maia enjoyed his discomfort, even if it was small.

“Um, mama we’re at a party right now. One you’re hosting for your husband’s birthday, at that.”

It took a moment, but she pulled it together. Turning to Issac she gave a sheepish smile and pulled him closer, he’d been standing just outside their little circle. “Oh my, I’m so sorry honey. This was just a surprise and I’m so happy to see Yoongi with my precious Maia again.”

Issac laughed and waved it off. “It’s fine sweetie. I’m happy to see you so happy. And nice to meet you, Yoongi.”

“Nice to meet you as well, sir.” Yoongi stretched out his arm for a handshake and the moment their hands touched a wave of nausea hit Maia.

Out of reaction her hand went behind her back immediately, fingers slipping through the shadows. Yoongi went on alert as well, pulling Maia closer to his side. Seconds went by and then the cause of their discomfort emerged from the crowd. Nicely dressed and with the fakest smile in the world, Matthew walked over to them. And much to Maia’s annoyance when Issac turned to look at him he smiled.

“Matthew, when did you get here? I didn't even see you come in.” Issac broke free of my mother and embraced the angel.

For a moment Matthew paid them no mind, focused solely on greeting Issac. After a few seconds his eyes made their way to Maia’s and they relayed a silent warning, but also held amusement at the predicament he put her in. The little shit had lived his whole life messing with her and even as an angel he did it. But him being there confused her because he never did missions that involved calmer behavior. The thoughts of what he could’ve been up to made her more uneasy then his presence did.

After several uncomfortable moments they finally moved to the dining room, everyone eating and talking amongst themselves. The food was a small reprieve for Maia, though people still occasionally asked her questions. Most attention focused on Yoongi though, and like a pro he answered everything with ease. They tried to railroad him a few times, but the man had this weird charm that eventually wore people down. Maia was ninety-five percent sure that they liked Yoongi more than they did her and he’d been in their lives less than two hours.

Once dinner was finished, Yoongi and Maia took over clearing the table and doing the dishes. Her mother tried to protest but was ignored and they got a system going to get things done quickly.

“You know I’m going to hurt you for that?” Maia whispered to him, making sure no one was around.

He chuckled, “I know, but it was totally worth it. I can survive a kick to the balls or a sword to the stomach.”

She scoffed and wanted to continue voicing her indignation but couldn’t stop the smile that formed. In truth he’d saved her some anxiety about how to go about telling her mom. Of course, she’d ask a million more questions at any given point, but at least the initial shock would be worn off.

“Come on you two, we have to sing for the birthday boy.” Her mother shouted from the other room as they put the last plate in the drying rack.

They slipped into the dining room but remained at the back of the crowd. Yoongi stood behind her, arms circling her waist. She tilted her head back and looked up at him to see a smile firmly planted on his lips. He leaned down and just as he pressed a kiss to her forehead the singing started.

Happy birthday had never been so off key.


	23. Chapter 23

Some days just didn’t come with the best feelings. Everything went okay, but something felt off or made the day worse than it needed to be. That’s how Maia felt when she’d woken up that morning. Something felt off and she experienced a migraine that made her want to slam her head into the nearest wall or sleep for the rest of the day, but both prevented her from doing the presentation that was half her grade so she refrained.

Of course, she suffered the entire class session since the medicine she took only did so much to alleviate the pain. Once it was over she was eager to go home, but then the professor for her next class saw her and that meant she couldn’t just disappear. Thankfully, she’d thought to pack medicine and a pop tart so after she devoured it she took a pill and tried to do the bare minimum in the class. And it worked for the most part, the pain retreated and she was functional by the time her second class was done, but so tired.

Sleep was all she wanted to do and she planned to leave right after that. Made her way towards the parking lot and everything, but then she paused when her phone rang. When she pulled it out she saw her mother’s name and picture, which immediately reminded her of why sleep was out of reach.

After taking a deep breath she answered the phone with fake happiness. “Hi mama.”

With the way there was a pause on the other side of the phone she knew that it was because she sounded off, but the universe was on her side again and her mother moved right by it.

“Hi, baby. I was calling to make sure you remembered that you and the twins are giving Samantha that campus tour we talked about. I know how forgetful you can be and thought it was best to catch you before you accidentally left campus.”

Nothing in her tone made her sound suspicious of Maia, but the underlying meaning was clear. She knew that Maia probably forgot or would pretend to and she wouldn’t allow it. And though a non-suffering Maia definitely planned to do that, the one that had experienced major pain and was tired beyond belief had valid reasons to want to abandon them all. But telling her mother that would lead to worry and her popping up at her apartment randomly, something she wanted to avoid.

“I remembered. I just got out of class and haven’t had the chance to look for the twins yet. They said they’d meet her at their apartment and bring her here since they didn’t have another class like me,” Maia said, though she failed to keep the tired out of her voice.

“Are you okay?” Genuine worry colored her mother’s tone, which meant Maia failed at her mission.

“Yeah. I’m just tired. Sleep was hard last night, but I’ll just nap after this,” she said.

Another pause made her fear that she’d be called out or questioned further, but her mother just made a noncommittal noise in response.

“Okay, if you say so. Meet up with them so you can get home and get some rest. Don’t try to show her everything now, just what you think is important and then go home. Okay?”

Maia nodded as if she could see it. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”

“Love you, mama. Later.”

With that they hung up and Maia’s body slumped for a moment. She had to pep talk herself into realizing she could get it done and then she straightened up and turned back, heading to where she said she’d meet them.

The moment she stepped into the courtyard she spotted them near a fountain standing awkwardly away from each other. They looked like strangers instead of siblings for anyone who didn’t know them. Which made Maia want to run away, but she kept walking towards them with the goal of getting it all over with.

“Ready to go?” she asked the moment she reached them.

They all jumped in shock, but once they recovered nodded. Though Samantha’s came with the usual sneer.

That didn’t stop Maia though, she kept walking.

“We can show you the library where you'll spend a lot of nights if you get accepted and choose to come here. It's good to know the best places to study and where to find the most helpful material when tests roll around.”

“But you’re supposed to give me the not boring tour,” Samantha whined.

Maia sighed. “Every tour is going to be boring. All I can do is not drone on and on with useless details that you don’t care about nor need to know. Plus, this will help a lot. This will be your home a lot of the time and it’s better to know all the secrets so you don’t have to stumble around your first year.”

That seemed to appease her and she remained silent the rest of the walk. They entered the library and showed her around rather easily since most people tended to avoid it until the last minute. Every secret needed to navigate and succeed was spilled, along with answering any questions she had. By the end she seemed more relaxed and engaged with them than usual, which was odd but more than fine with Maia.

After they left the library they pointed her towards another smaller one that she could use for more specific and niche subjects, but didn’t go in because it required Samantha to have a student ID. From there it was all about what building was where and which advisors were best to speak to because there were ones where avoiding them was the best thing you could ever do.

Samantha was very receptive to all of it and even asked deeper questions on things that were brought up. By the time they finished the little tour they reached the art building and Erica noticed a class going on.

“You want to look in?” she asked her sister.

At first Samantha appeared bewildered, but then she nodded excitedly and they all slipped in. The prof didn’t notice them, so to keep it that way they stood at the back.

For twenty minutes they watched him cover material that mostly went over Maia’s head. Art wasn’t her thing. However, Alex and Samantha were entranced. Alex had taken the class for his major already and Samantha was interested in art or at least that’s what Issac said. It made the class visit perfect. Plus, she could ask Alex all the questions she had if it’s something she really wanted to pursue; and possibly bring the siblings closer.

Just as the professor finished up Maia led them back out of the hall and into the courtyard. Once they reached a bench she turned to Samantha.

“So, what do you think?”

“That looked both terrifying and awesome at the same time. So much different from the same classroom setup I had in high school and that my community college. The idea of being in a bigger group and not so much on the teacher's radar sounds less stressful,” she said, practically squealing.

Alex laughed. “Yeah, it helps a lot. I find it easier to focus and absorb what they have to say when I'm not worried about having the answer to their next question. Especially with that prof. He tends to pick on the people closer to him a lot.”

Samantha’s eyes got wider if that were possible.

“You’ve taken him?”

And just like that they dove into discussion about the class Alex had taken with him and about his other teacher’s. It was the most excited she’d seen either of them around each other and soon enough Erica joined the conversation adding her two cents.

Watching them felt nice, but then Maia’s phone rang and she was forced to step away. Yoongi’s face popped up on the screen and she answered quickly.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Hey. Could you do me a favor and stop over at the warehouse? I was supposed to head there in ten minutes for training but something came up. I’d leave it and be late, but I just have this weird feeling,” he said.

Those words unsettled her, but she remained calm and kept her expression neutral.

“Yeah, just finished up with the campus tour and the twins can take it from here. But why can’t you go?”

Yoongi huffed. “I don't know. Sama'el said he had a thing he wanted to talk about really quick. I should be there minutes after you.”

“Okay, I’ll head there now,” Maia said as she finally caught Alex’s eyes and gestured that she had to go. He nodded in understanding and she turned to find an empty space.

“Thanks, lovie. I’ll see you in a bit,” he said and hung up.

Maia slipped her phone into her pocket just as she found a dark pathway that no one ever used. Without wasting time she used the shadows to navigate to the warehouse with one of her scimitars in hand. But no weapon was enough to prepare her for what she found on the other side.

Everything was trashed, every inch coated in blood or body parts. Bodies were scattered and some so mutilated that you’d have to read souls to identify them, if the souls were intact in the first place.

The entire place smelled of ash and the intense copper smell that blood gave off. Taking careful steps she surveyed the area for any survivors or any angels who needed to be finished off. It wasn’t like there was doubt on who’d done it, and if the answer wasn’t obvious enough the feathers and piles of dust laying among the chaos were great indicators. Seeing those told her that the fallen hadn’t gone down without a fight, which eased some of the sadness she felt. Pride overshadowed the anger that brewed underneath for a moment.

Close inspection showed her that they’d caught them by surprise, but some were able to grab weapons to defend themselves. It was mostly the newer fallen who laid their weaponless and with none nearby, they never stood a chance.

The rage she felt increased tenfold at that.

As she squatted down to take a closer look at something there was shuffling behind her. Whirling around she was prepared to strike, but there was no one to be seen. A groan filled the air and in the corner of her eye Maia noticed a mostly intact body squirm. She sprinted over, squatting down to take a closer look at the male. His eyes were half closed and his brown skin coated in blood, his and that of others. But what mattered most was that he was alive.

His eyes opened a bit and met hers but fluttered closed again. Maia placed her hand on his cheek, tapping it softly to keep him with her. “Hey. I need you to focus on me, okay? I need you to tell me who you are and then tell me if you know who I am.”

For a few seconds he remained silent, but with a groan his eyes opened again. The pain in them was so clear, it was like a dagger to her heart. Relieving him of the pain was what she wanted, but she needed to make sure he was there.

“Come on. We can get through this if you tell me those things. We can fix this.”

His mouth opened and closed, but after a few tries he managed to get something out. “Jay.”

Relief filled her, glad that he could remember his name. Even the smallest fracture of the soul could render someone unable to remember the most basic details of themselves.

“That’s great Jay. Do you know who I am?” As Maia spoke she continued to caress his cheek, to let him know physically that she was with him.

Jay released a shaky breath and nodded slightly. “Heir.”

“That's right. I promise you it's going to be okay, love. I promise you, you'll be reborn in no time. You know what I have to do though, right?” Maia’s voice went soft, so much that she was unsure he’d heard me at all.

Another faint nod and she leaned down to place a gentle kiss to his forehead. “I’ll be quick. Promise.”

Taking a deep breath she moved back a little, the grasp on her scimitar tightening. After a moment she plunged it into his chest, right where his heart was; seconds later all signs of life were gone.

As she stood from her position a few tears rolled down her cheeks. Killing a fallen was hard, especially when it needed to be done out of mercy. That wasn’t why she cried though, her tears were formed out of frustration and anger. Her body bypassed its usually fiery response and went straight to silent shaking rage.

Stepping over Jay’s body she walked through a shadow that took her to Hell. The meeting room was in use when she emerged, regents, her father, Lilith, Sama’el and Yoongi sat at the table. There was a demon standing off to the side, whispering in Lucifer’s ear. When she stood she saw Maia and her eyes widened, a gasp escaping her. Her reaction brought everyone’s attention to her, which led to more shocked expressions.

“What the hell happened?” Yoongi jumped up from his seat, running to her side.

“An angel invasion happened. When I got to the warehouse all had been slaughtered, except for one new fallen. He survived but was too wounded for me to carry here. His soul was still intact, so he'll show up again at some point.” A humorless laugh escaped her as the grip on her sword tightened.

“The pricks attacked our fucking warehouse in the middle of the day. They slaughtered our fallen, and probably left several shattered souls.” As the rage started to boil over Maia’s voice grew softer and more aggressive.

Yoongi stood beside her and removed the sword from her hand as he rubbed circles into her lower back. She tried to focus on the feeling and let the anger dissipate, but every time she relaxed she got worked up again.

“That explains the influx of reborn souls that Lia spoke of,” Lucifer mumbled and looked off in thought.

After a moment or two he collected himself and the anger he radiated matched Maia’s. “We're moving this meeting to a more pressing issue. Apologies regents, this is a bit more important than your nomination for the moment.”

They all responded in agreement.

Yoongi ushered Maia over to her usual seat and Lilith moved down one so that he could sit next to her. His hand didn’t leave her once, which could be considered sweet, but she knew it was to ensure she didn’t try to do something stupid. The urge to return to the surface and spill some angel blood was so strong that he was right to keep an eye on her.

“We've watched the angels for weeks. Every move we could see, we've seen and made note of. Of course, we suspected something would happen, but I doubt any of us thought they'd hit us like this. We must move quickly to deal with the situation, or we'll end up with another event like this on our hands.” Lucifer said calmly.

“Sama'el, I need you to send demons and fallen up to take care of that mess. There shouldn't be a speck of this incident anywhere in that warehouse. I also want more security on it. I want more security on all of our places. We've been too sloppy and cocky about our ability to sense them, and that played right into their hands.”

Sama’el gave a curt nod.

Lucifer’s attention shifted to the regents, his gaze intense. “All of you are to stay alert and after this meeting go back to your circles. Make sure things run smoothly and nothing weird happens. Also send any fallen who haven’t been properly trained to Sama’el to do so, there is no more training for regency unless they know how to be a soldier outside of our circles.”

One thing she never doubted was father’s ability to handle situations like angel attacks. She’d lost faith in him, but that didn’t always hinder her ability to acknowledge that he knew what he was doing. Hearing him dictate and handle the situation so well helped calm her flames, but that didn’t quell them completely.

“Lilith, I need you to inform every fallen we have up there. Make sure to move around the locations of our safe houses, where we do business and figure out a way to push up any missions you have. This won’t deter our efforts and we’ll make sure that they see that.”

Yoongi cleared his throat, drawing all attention towards him. “How are we going to respond to this? Are we going to act like it never happened or go out there and retaliate?”

That was the most important part of all of it, how they’d proceeded mattered more than anything. Preventative measures were great, but that didn’t really set the tone. Everyone at the table appeared eager for the answer, but Lucifer remained silent. Glancing his way Maia noticed the far-off look in his eyes, he’d drifted into his own world, too far in his own head. Seconds turned to minutes and it took Maia snapping her fingers in his face to bring him back. His eyes met hers for a moment and then he cleared his throat.

“This was a power move. We've been challenged to retaliate and we're expected to come at them hard too. I could say that we shouldn't, that it's a bad idea, but that is not the case. We will retaliate against them and we will come at them hard. This is not something we can let stand. We will show Him that we don’t bend to his will,” he said firmly.

Everyone nodded in agreement, some wearing smirks that made them appear too eager. Of course, they were in favor of a full-fledged assault, the regents enjoyed a good battle where they could sit back and see how it played out. They failed to see that it wasn’t always the route to take, that other options were available.

“I think we should hear what Maia has to say,” Lilith interjected.

“I think you’re right. Maia, tell us how you feel this should go. These are your people as much as they are mine, and moments like this are when we show how we truly rule.” He spoke to her as his equal, not condescending or sarcastic.

All eyes were on Maia in an instant and it tanked some of the anger she held, replacing it with uncertainty. Even if she had been sure of what to say, the potential judgment of coming up with the wrong thing weighed on her; especially because many of them saw her as some powerless girl. After proving being capable many doubted her and despite her constant glares their way it dampered her confidence.

Taking a deep breath she conjured the image of rolling waves and felt calm wash over. “I walked into that warehouse, feeling like something wrong had already occurred. One second in and I saw the carnage they'd made of the fallen and of our base. They made it their mission to not only slaughter our people, but also make a mess of our territory. Few piles of angel were present, but those piles tell me that we fought back as hard as we could. There was no weakness shown by us, but it was by them.”

Pausing she took in the faces around her and made sure they were all focused on her. She knew some of her spiel was a regurgitation of what she’d already said, but it felt organic to start that way. To get all the thoughts out of her head the way they came so she wasn’t holding anything in.

“We could sit by and wait for them to slip up, and we could even sit by and let this go unchecked, but we shouldn't. This is one of those times when we strike back, but not in full force. A plan needs to be devised so that they feel what we feel. We use the intel on their houses, business, strongholds and we come at them from several angles. The goal wouldn't be to completely annihilate them, but to pick off enough of them that they see that this won't stand, and we will start a war if need be.” As she finished her little speech the room shifted, and it felt like they were actually giving what was said a chance.

They murmured amongst themselves and that put Maia at ease. None of the usual combatants spoke out against her, in fact all of them were fond of her ideas. There was this small bit of satisfaction and pride that filled her, though she didn’t revel in it too much.

“I like it. Hitting hard isn't always going to be the answer and it's good that you know that now,” Sama’el said.

Lucifer placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed, a smile on his face. His eyes twinkled with what appeared to be pride, but she couldn’t make it out as it was tinged with something else.

“Sama'el, Lilith, Maia, Yoongi and I will take care of planning. Everyone will be kept up to date if it's necessary, and it won't be spread outside of those directly told. If you have something I told you to do then you'll leave directly from here and do it. We'll regroup in about an hour to get the details together and put this all into motion. I want to get to them sooner rather than later,” he announced, silencing the whispers.

With that all the regents filed out while Lilith and Sama’el moved to talk amongst themselves; probably already hammering out some details. Maia stood and took her scimitar from Yoongi, depositing it through the shadows.

“I need to text the twins, they’re with Samantha. Obviously, I can’t comeback right now and least of all like this.” She motioned towards the blood that coated parts of her skin and clothes.

“I’ll text them to handle it,” Yoongi said and typed out a message before she could utter another word.

Maia sighed and nodded, there was nothing left in her to object. The tired that plagued her earlier came back worse than before and she found it hard to even stand.

Yoongi caught on and wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Let’s get you cleaned up and in bed,” he said.

And just like that he led her towards the bedroom she had in Hell. He helped her shower and get redressed before she fell onto the bed. The last thing she remembered before she cuddled into him was Jay’s face before she had to kill him.


	24. Chapter 24

"You don't have to do this Maia. If you decided to stay here and let someone else handle it no one would judge you. This is your plan after all." Yoongi reassured her for the umpteenth time.

Since the plans were formed he'd tried to keep Maia as far from any real action as he could. At first, he hid it under the guise of her being stressed out and having tests, papers and presentations coming up, but she saw through it. He offered to do all of the hands-on jobs himself but lacked any problem with all the logistics work she needed to do; work that was much more stressful than anything else. It was clear what his intentions were and Maia found it both sad and sweet.

Yoongi had been a little rattled after he realized that if Maia showed up to the warehouse a little sooner she could’ve been hurt or even another fallen dead. It made him much less willing for Maia to take risks, even if she could handle them.

She smiled at him and poked his cheek. "I know. It's not like I'm jumping into a major line of fire, Yoon. I'm going to the lowest level of the strongholds, which shouldn't have many angels there."

By the way, his frown deepened she was sure that nothing she said would provide the comfort that he needed. She understood, but she hated it and found it a tad unnecessary. Nothing had happened. He called her minutes after the angels who did survive had left the warehouse and she hadn’t been meant to show up until hours later. There was little to no chance she would have been a target for the attack and that they would try to finish a job they never started.

Maia sighed and grasped one of his hands, squeezing it tight. “Things will be fine, Yoon. You won't find my body in some pile with other fallen. Don't worry so much, it'll take away your focus. Unlike me, you've chosen to go to a more major location. I should be the one this worried, but I have faith in your abilities.”

“I have faith in you,” he said defensively.

“I know you do, you're just letting worry overshadow that. I can kick ass and I know when fleeing is the best option. I completely know and understand the risks this time, it'll be just like a regular mission. Everything will go swimmingly. I'm sure.” She emphasized the last words, hoping that it would break down some of the worry.

Yoongi glanced away from her and released what sounded like a long-held breath, which was riddled with frustration. He wouldn't meet her eyes for a few seconds, but when he did his shoulders slumped and she knew she had him.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, I know you got this.”

The corners of her lips turned up, her smile wide. Maia released his hand and leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. He responded without hesitation, his arms wrapped around her waist to pull her closer as he deepened the kiss. And while it was chaste it felt much more intense than it let on.

After who knows how long Yoongi pulled away with a smile. “We should stop or I'm only going to get worse about you staying here. This is hurting your point more than helping it right now.”

Maia’s face felt a tad hot, which surprised her since she didn't feel flustered at all. “I think that’s wise.”

They pulled apart and Maia collected herself because regardless of her lack of fear about something happening she didn’t want to let that make her lax. Operations didn't always pan out as they wanted them to and even if they prepared for every eventuality conceivable something would change. They always needed to be cautious and not so sure of themselves, especially with something as large as they were attempting. It wasn't some minor attack, it was a coordinated assault.

Once in a cool state of mind, Maia looked at Yoongi, who was staring back at her. She smiled again, squeezing his hand once more before releasing.

"Ready?"

Without responding a shadow formed and he stepped through it and just as he disappeared Maia did the same. Her destination was a safe house near the attack point where everyone on her team waited. When she stepped through she was greeted with a full room of people.

"Good, everyone's here," Anne, a fallen section leader, said as she appeared.

Maia waved at her and weaved towards the front of the room where she stood. As she walked she took note of everyone there, mostly the newer fallen going on their first or second mission. It was a sort of training situation for them, thus the reason it wasn't one of the more major points of attack. No one wanted to lose anyone because they weren't ready, that was just cruel.

“Everything ready?” Maia asked.

Anne nodded. "Yeah, we're ready to move out upon the order to do so."

"Good, this shouldn't be a long drawn out thing. Our goal isn't to remove the place off the face of the earth, just cause a problem and kill a few angels. Simple stuff."

"They've been briefed, so they should know what to exp-" Before Anne could finish an alarm sound, indicating it was time.

"Go!" She shouted.

Everyone stepped through the shadows, weapons at the ready. Once everyone was gone Maia stepped through as well. When they arrived at the other side, into the angel stronghold, they were met with angels who appeared prepared for their arrival. It wasn't surprising since there were numerous sightings of fallen and demons in the area all that day. It would’ve been disappointing to see them not ready to fight.

A whistle from Anne and all fallen surged forward, pulling the angels into the fight. For the particular attack, they’d overcompensated in numbers, wanting to create a bit more chaos for the angels as they tried to gain the upper hand. Watching her fallen outnumber the angels two to one made Maia smile. They all did so well and worked together as a team, it meant their training had progressed in the right direction.

In the midst of all the madness, one of the angels unfurled their wings and flew above the crowd. It was clear she was coming for Maia since she’d taken a spot on the catwalk of the warehouse to watch everything unfold. One of her scimitars was already in her hand, ready for anyone who tried her, but her preparedness proved unnecessary. As the angel lurched forward a spear suddenly lodged itself into their chest. Glancing down at the ground Maia saw a smirking Anne fighting off an angel who'd overpowered a few others, her spear nowhere to be found.

"Confident. I love it," Maia whispered to herself.

With her aggressor neutralized she continued to sit back and watch. It was nice not needing to lift a finger, because despite their unfair advantage they weren’t fighting fresh out of training angels. They were putting in the work and effort, taking out those who’d seen more action and had years more training then them. It was honestly a proud moment for Maia, almost like seeing your own child go off and succeed.

As she internally gushed with pride Maia noticed a pair of fallen decapitating an angel off in the corner. While one delivered the final blow another yanked free a dagger dripping with a poisonous substance. It was to taint the soul, because sometimes you couldn’t just push someone into the sinful life. There would be no rebirth to serve their lord and savior, they would live their lives in Hell.

When the dead angels started to pile up Maia knew it was time to go, they’d done what they’d come to do. Whistling she gained everyone’s attention and without question the fallen stopped and left. Anne was the last to leave her sight, giving a thumbs up as she went.

The angels who were left were either badly battered or standing and angry, ready to follow behind the fallen. When they knew it couldn’t happen all attention turned to Maia and she could feel the waves of rage and hate. One of them surged forward with wings unfurled, but she winked and stepped back into the shadows and out of their warehouse.

###

Since Maia’s attack was so early in the timeline of events, she thought she’d have time to relax and do some studying for her finals. But by the time she’d returned to Hell and got comfortable her father entered the room with her least favorite fallen right behind.

Darien wore a smirk on his face and it only grew as his eyes met hers. It was agitating and made her want to kick his ass just as she’d wanted after his little stunt with her mother’s church. But if he was down in Hell that meant he was needed and she couldn’t tear him into pieces.

Both men walked up to her but stopped several feet away. Darien’s expression remained cocky and smug, while Lucifer looked uncomfortable. It was the same expression he wore the time he had to tell Maia that her dog had escaped because he’d left the door open and didn’t realize until hours later.

“I know you’ve been working hard on making sure everything went well, so while you were busy I had the regents submit their pick and Darien was a common choice. So, from here on out he’ll take the place of regent. Which means he won’t be permitted to leave Hell at all and will spend a few months rarely leaving his circle as he gets acquainted with it,” Lucifer said quickly.

That made Maia’s eyes narrow. She knew something was up, but she hadn’t imagined that was it. It made sense though since Darien tended to keep to himself when he was above the surface and didn’t care much for actual fights with angels. He was the perfect candidate and she hated it. But what she hated more was that Lucifer had said all that as a way to tell her and reassure her that he wouldn’t bother her mother again, which told her that he knew what happened and maybe felt some guilt. Not enough for her liking, but she expected nothing less.

Instead of exploding like either of them assumed, she merely nodded her head and focused on her reading.

“That’s fine. He’s a better choice than the others they came up with,” she said.

There was silence for a minute and she hoped that meant they would leave her alone, but that proved not to be the case. So, when she realized they still stood and watched her she looked up and stared at them.

“Anything else?” she asked.

Lucifer took a deep breath and then spoke.

“Yes, he will be the one assigned to be in the room with you when you do the ceremony. He won’t be at risk of stepping in when he shouldn’t and despite your… dynamic he will do what needs to be done.”

That almost got a rise out of her because she despised the idea of having to be around him for any long period of time. But then the memory of something she saw during her first attempt popped into her head and a smile graced her lips, alarming both of them.

“That’s fine,” she said.

Again, they seemed unsure of what to do next, but then both of them walked away to sit at the table, leaving her to lay on the couch to study.

Two hours passed before Yoongi appeared and when he did he made her sit up and then put her head in his lap. He didn’t say a word just sat there with his eyes closed as she continued her work. Though about half an hour in he pulled a book out of thin air and began reading it. The cover caught Maia’s attention.

She sat her flashcards down and rubbed her temples. "That any good?"

For a few seconds he said nothing and then once he turned the page he glanced down at her. "It's alright. The pace is a bit slow, so I'm fighting to keep reading. I've heard nothing but excellent reviews, so I'm holding out for it to get better."

Maia scoffed, then reached up and snatched the book from him. He panicked until he noticed her finger between the pages where he'd stopped as she read the back.

"Slow pacing? You live for long drawn out things. You once fanboyed hard over a research thesis that was the length of a novel and all it was saying is that rice is bad for you."

When she glanced up at him he rolled his eyes. There was indignation in his voice as he responded, "I learned something very important that day."

"Yeah, you learned that people are stupid and they can pry rice from my cold, dead hands."

Rolling her eyes she handed him the book back and dove into studying again. She had a binder of the PowerPoints with notes all over them, it was easier for her to remember things if she wrote them down in the most simplified way possible. Everything clicked better than when she read over the flashcards, her brain felt less mushy. But even with the ease in which she understood she still felt overwhelmed and only lasted about half an hour before giving up.

After a few minutes sitting with her eyes closed, she glanced up at Yoongi, who’d gone back to reading his book. Seconds passed as she looked from him to the book before she snatched it again. She took one of her flashcards and placed it in his spot before opening it to the first page.

"Rude," he huffed.

"Rude is snatching the book and ripping a page as I read it," she said as she read.

"That was unintentional."

"Still happened."

For the first minute, he mumbled his grievances to himself but stopped when he tried to take the book back and she smacked his hand hard. So, with that victory, she continued reading, immediately seeing his problem. It wasn't that it was like a slow burn or slow to get to the action, no they were explaining everything. She knew the exact details of the main character's cheetah print leggings and how her bra affected the curve of her breast. The latter one had her checking for the author's image in the bio and the balding white male there didn't surprise her at all.

Four chapters in she had to put the book down. There was too much description happening for her and she really didn't want to endure the "we forgot your birthday but didn't really" trope that the author laid down. There was no way she would ever be in the mood for the type of emotional mind fuck it would have on the character. Before she could air her grievances though the door to the meeting room slammed open, drawing her attention. Lilith, along with Sama'el and the regents filed in. At first, Maia feared that something went wrong, but then she noticed that someone was missing. She counted the regents twice to prove that she was wrong, but she wasn’t and it made her stomach knot.

"No.” she said.

Lucifer stared at the group for a moment before it clicked and then his chair clattered to the floor with the way he got up.

Lilith paused to punch the nearest wall as she released a scream of anger. "She was stupid! The idiot stepped out of her circle and onto the surface for a second and they pounced on her so quickly. There was never a chance and she won't be making her way to rebirth."

Silence reigned and then Sama’el stepped forward. "This was found in her chest."

He unfurled a cloth and showed the room a dagger, it was covered in angel runes. It was the type of weapon that ensured that once dead you could not rise again, a permanent soul shatter. They weren't something that angels commonly had on them, which meant it wasn't some attack that was by chance. It was intentional and she'd been dumb enough to fall for it.

Anger coursed through Maia, her fists clenched and unclenched. The urge to punch something or someone was strong, and what was funny is that urge didn't translate in violence towards a single angel.

"Those stupid ankle monitors I mentioned at twelve years old are sounding fucking great right about now," she said.

Everyone's gaze fell on her after that, the regents looked shocked by the outburst and then disapproving. She didn't care though, they seemed to be lacking in common sense so they could shove all that condescension up their ass.

Maia rose from where she was and crossed the room so she stood in front of the table. Her hands slammed into it and she glared at all of them.

"I don't give a fuck what your reasons are, none of you are allowed above ground. I don't care if your life depends on it, you stay in your circles unless called out otherwise. If any of you grown ass adults can't handle that please let me know because I can find your replacement right now."

Though they weren’t phased to start, that changed when they noticed the shift in her eyes and the way flames licked at her skin. They fixed their faces or diverted their gaze and mumbled words of understanding. It was good that they knew when not to test her.

After she took a deep breath and calmed herself she turned to look at her father, who scowled at the regents.

“Meeting now?” she asked.

Lucifer snapped out of the trance quickly. "Right now. And we’re moving up your ceremony date. It’ll be in two days.”

That last part nearly knocked the air out of Maia, but she managed to keep herself calm. She had anger to focus on anyway.


	25. Chapter 25

Despite the acceptance of the ceremony happening sooner than she’d like Maia’s nerves persisted. Sleep was almost nonexistent after it had been decided and when she’d finally drifted off her father called another meeting. There was something about wanting to go over things, which was the opposite of what she wanted which was peace.

However, she managed to drag herself out of bed and make it down to Hell for the meeting. She was met with reassuring looks from Lilith and Yoongi, which helped a bit. Even seeing Darien amongst the regents had a calming effect or at least it amused her how he glared at her appearance. She took it though, some sort of distraction from all the other suffocating feelings was better than none at all.

There was no time to hope that the small distraction was enough though, because the moment her behind hit the seat Lucifer began talking.

“First things first, we have to figure out a possible new regent. We have no time for mourning or any of that nonsense. She made the choice to do something she wasn’t supposed to and reaped the consequences of those actions. What is important is that we replace her faster than the last idiot to go to the surface. So, I expect you to figure out possibilities and voice them before you leave this room today. It is of highest importance.”

“Is it possible for us to use someone temporarily? We have a lot going on and trying to make that decision now could be detrimental. So, how about choosing someone who can temporarily take over and then try to get them in as soon as possible. Perhaps a retired regent?” Lilith offered.

Lucifer appeared to maul that over for a moment before nodding in agreement, Lilith immediately called over a demon standing somewhere in the back of the room and after a whisper in their ear they were off.

“Actually, come with people that could work this time. None of that holding off until the last possible second bullshit. We don’t have the time,” Maia said.

There were a few grumbles, but they stopped the moment she turned her head to look at the ones who did it. They truly were grown men constantly whining but incapable of keeping that energy when confronted directly.

Once they were handled Maia’s attention drifted to her father.

“Are we going to retaliate again or let this slide for now?” she asked him.

A smirk made its way onto Lucifer’s lips, but then he pushed it down and shook his head. “Don’t worry about that right now. When Sama’el and I figure things out you’ll be told what’s going to happen next. I want to keep things a secret for a while longer.”

Nothing about what he said was unusual, but it made Maia uncomfortable. Upon entering the meeting room her father radiated an energy that was tense and angry, but in minutes shifted into the picture of calm and nonchalant. Which again wasn’t abnormal, but she’d be lying if she didn’t admit him withholding things from her made her uneasy for other reasons.

“What does that mean exactly?” she asked.

Of course, she was met with a shrug and a look of indifference, which made her even more on edge than before. “Don’t worry about it too much, you have other things to focus on. I have this handled, you just have to trust me.”

The shift at the use of that word was beyond clear with the way her eyes narrowed and her body tensed.

“Trust you? Trusting you went out the window a long time ago. So no, I cannot just trust you and you cannot expect me to when you aren’t telling me something.”

A groan of frustration escaped Lucifer and his hand moved to massage his temples. It was as if Maia inconvenienced him somehow and she couldn’t figure out how for the life of her. Especially since it was beyond clear why she’d feel a way about putting any kind of faith in him.

“I make one little mistake and you question my capabilities forever. One mistake doesn’t dictate my ability to plan and lead like I have for this long. I know what I’m doing,” he retorted.

Before Maia knew it she rose from her seat and stared him down. The word little daring to come from his mouth was what set her off and before anyone could stop her - not that they tried - she launched herself at him with so much force that he and his chair were sent flying back.

At first, he attempted to get her off, but she remained unmoved. With one hand she held tight to his shirt and with the other she pulled back and punched him in the face repeatedly. Rage filled her every move. She kept hitting even when tears blurred her vision and the world around her began to fade.

Everything felt like a dream as Maia was given her scimitars and outfitted in thicker clothing to lessen any cuts or bruising she’d receive. She did everything on autopilot until she stood in front of large double doors that led to a vast and unused arena not far from Lucifer’s castle.

There is when the nerves kicked in and she’d tried to get out of it before receiving a pep talk from Yoongi that she wasn’t fully sure she heard. But what he said calmed her and after receiving more talks from Lilith and her father she was ready to go. Ready to take on whatever awaited her behind the doors.

“Remember what you see is not real and you must push forward,” Lucifer said.

Maia nodded in understanding and then the doors opened for her. With a deep breath she walked forward, fighting the urge to glance back, and didn’t stop until she was in the center of the empty space.

Calm held her together, but the sound of the doors slamming shut behind her reignited some of that fear inside of her. She pushed it down though, reminding herself that everything would work out and that she had nothing to worry about. For years she’d trained to do what she was there to do and she knew that she was good at it, so there was nothing to worry about.

All possible issues were well covered.

Minutes passed with her standing in that spot, but she remained collected. Allowing the quiet and lack of movement wasn’t helpful. Whenever things would start is when she’d move into action and only then.

Thankfully, it didn’t take much longer for that to happen. About ten minutes in she saw the emergency of demons around her. They all kept their distance, keeping closer to the walls, but all she cared about was them finally making an appearance.

Seconds ticked by as she waited for something else and then the next thing she knew one was in front of her, but instead of their normal form it took on the appearance of some horrible boy she’d encountered in high school. He was relentless in bothering her no matter how much she fought back and at a point had her so wrapped up in dealing with him she wasn’t able to focus on much else.

He was a hindrance and those types of people needed to be removed from one’s path.

Without a thought or hesitation Maia drove one of her scimitars through his stomach and twisted, watching as he dropped to his knees. A feeling of peace washed over her as she watched him wither in pain. It wasn’t because of some wish to do that to the actual boy, but because she removed him from her path with such ease. That she dealt with one less nuisance in her life stopping her from accomplishing something.

Once she’d watched the life drain from him she continued on that. More demons wearing the faces of those who blocked her way in some capacity presented themselves and she cut every one of them down. Even when they doubled up she was able to fight them off, avoiding more than a scratch here or there as they began to fight back more with each new person.

The real trouble didn’t come until she was at her last three. She’d taken down a fallen she’d encountered during her training that had tried to sabotage her every step of the way, but as they went down she felt a searing pain in her back. She managed to get away and when she whipped around was met with the face Matthew. He was another nuisance to her in high school, but he’d died their junior year and ascended to become an angel. He became a bigger nuisance then and always popped up when she was out on missions. Matthew was someone Maia was more than happy to knock down a peg, but when she saw the face behind him she hesitated for a moment.

It was her mother.

Though she didn’t see her mother as a problem she was one. The love she felt for her sometimes made it harder to deal with her choice to embrace fallen angel status. By no means did it stop her, but it made her a bit uneasy. Maia assumed she would be there, but no amount of preparation made her ready to kill her - fake or not.

That didn’t last long though, it couldn’t, because she’d reached her final levels and that meant they came at her harder than ever. Demon Matthew swung a broad sword at her and she had to scramble back again while she refocused her mind. The next move was made by her and she came in hot. Swinging with intention and landing it.

By no means did that mean Maia was good. Once her head was in the game she was in for a serious fight and both of them were in the game. They came at her harder than anyone. She managed to land hits of her own and dodge all of theirs that would cause major damage, but that didn’t mean she lacked marks of her own.

Goodness knows how long that went on, but at some point she began to feel tired. There was a lot of fight still in her, but she needed to put some distance to catch her breath so she did. After using her scimitars to push back her mother and kicking Matthew she quick stepped back until there was a decent amount of space between them. She took two deep breaths, rolled back her shoulders and then with her second wind charged forward.

She dominated too, but all it took was one misstep to bring it all crashing down. There was no way she could’ve seen Matthew’s change of course as she pushed her blade into her mother’s stomach and that’s why he was able to cut her side deeply.

Nothing she couldn’t still fight with, but it changed the whole dynamic. Demons that still waited at the wall or she’d “killed” all seemed to shift. No more were the faces of those she knew and no more did they keep their distance. All at once she was tackled to the ground.

Something had set them off and though she managed to shake off a few there were too many. They were persistent and stronger than her, it was impossible, and she felt like she was suffocating. Confusion and panic filled her so much that she couldn’t think to use the shadows to escape and they didn’t shy away from the hellfire she produced.

“Help,” she screamed out.

She knew they couldn’t hear her, but she’d hoped. Something that did her no good.

As they grew more frantic she felt pain radiate over her entire body, its intensity changing as her screams became more often. At some point tears sprang free from her eyes and the pain ceased, only to hit in a whole new way. Maia’s body was one thing, but the new pain was as if they’d reached deep inside of her to the soul. All at once it felt on fire and then like it would break.

The cries for help grew weaker as she did and soon enough she drifted off with an uncertainty if she’d ever wake up.

Angel was the last word she heard.

Even as she drifted between life and death she wasn’t allowed peace. Her body was in constant battle with itself and it took months for her to even open her eyes. She was out of it for so long and even once awake she couldn’t function.

If it weren’t for her mother being under the impression that she was away with Avery on some gap year and her father’s shapeshifting abilities that would have been a problem. But they got away with it until she got better.

The process was slow, but eventually she was back to herself. Well, herself along with nightmares that plagued her even when she was awake.

It was a trying time, but she got through it with help. Lilith, Avery, and even Sama’el visited often. To be honest Avery rarely left her side. But the one person who seemed to not be putting in that effort was her father. He would pop in occasionally and it would only be him peeking into the room for a second and then leaving. It wouldn’t have made her as angry if she hadn’t learned that the thing that sent the demons into a frenzy was her blood. Despite her clear allegiance she still had untainted angel blood coursing through her and they feasted upon angels.

Something she never knew and should’ve been told before she’d gone in there.

After a few weeks of being fully functional and dealing with Lucifer’s behavior she cornered him to demand answers, only to get the shittiest response in the world.

Once she finished talking he groaned and rolled his eyes.

“It wasn't my fault, Maia. It shouldn't have happened that way, but it did and all we can do is move past it. What's the point in lingering on a little mistake?”

Anger had never filled her so quickly.

“My agony. My pain. Is the result of a little mistake? I almost fucking died in one of the most painful ways possible. Every second of everyday I felt pain ripple through me, never the same as the first but damn near close. And all that happened because you fucked up. Now I live life with those memories, that pain. Only to have a father who doesn't have a single care to make sure his child is okay after such an ordeal. A leader who doesn't care enough to see if his soldier is still in fighting shape.”

“Maia, calm down,” he said, sounding tired, but without remorse.

“Don't tell me to calm down. I haven't even received an apology out of you. All you have is excuses to give and I'm done with them. I'm tired of them. Don't speak to me. Don't try and contact me. Act as if you are childless. Act like you have no heir, because I am done with everything that has to do with you.”

The words shocked even Maia, but she meant them and wouldn’t take them back. So, with one last look at him she turned on her heel and stormed away.

“Maia!”

She never looked back.

When the haze cleared Maia was dragged away from her father or laid on the ground beaten and bloodied. She tried her best to get back to where he was, but the grip around her waist was too strong to break out of.

“You are nothing but a piece of shit and useless father. You broke me and didn’t care. Did you see the pain I was in? Did you see how my body, mind and soul were shattered?” she screamed.

“I’m sorry, Maia,” he said, pushing away Lilith, who attempted to wipe his face with a towel. “I knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t think anything like that would happen. You’d made your allegiance so many years before, so I thought it would be enough to buy you time if they were to cause anything more severe than a scratch. And I thought keeping you in the dark was for the better, because then you wouldn’t be so worried about getting hit and focus on doing the damage you needed to.”

He paused for a second and let out a shaky breath. “Then I saw my baby girl on the ground being torn to pieces and I froze. Fear had never gripped me like that, it was worse than the day I tried to get back on Father’s good side. I felt like part of me was dying with you too and by the time I had sprung into action they were almost done with you.

“I got them off, but it didn’t change things. I… I almost lost you and it was completely on me for putting you out there without you knowing the risks. Or without testing their reactions in a controlled field. I almost got you killed and I didn’t know how to make that up to you. I hurt you and didn’t know how to beg you for forgiveness, because I’d chosen to no longer do that anymore. No one would ever bring me to my knees like that again, but this is what I should have done.”

By the end his voice broke and Maia calmed down enough to feel the sadness that radiated from him. The regret too.

Lucifer moved closer to her and once he was a few feet away he stopped. Something in Maia wanted her to listen so she stopped trashing in Sama’el’s arms and just watched him. Watched his eyes water and his shoulders slump in defeat. Then he suddenly dropped to his knees in front of her.

“Maia Lucille, despite my perceived nature I’ve always known how to love but chose not to. You are the one exception in this world to that rule, and not just because of what you can do for me in this world. You are the exception, because you are a beautiful, strong, confident, and capable girl who makes me remember that happiness I once held while serving by His side. And regardless of how I turned out, I don’t mind that reminder. I embrace and love being your father, because you make me feel something I haven’t in years.”

All the anger ran its course and a deep sense of sadness hit her. Maia’s knees buckled and she dropped to the ground as Sama’el realized she was no longer a threat. A sob ripped from her lips and she felt forward into his chest, not even moving when his arm wrapped around her and he pulled her close.

“I’m so sorry, Mai Mai. I should have said it sooner. I should’ve been there for you,” he whispered.

There was no way to get over it immediately, but it felt so good to be in his embrace and to not be so filled with rage.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to post this last week. Oops!

The morning of the ritual Maia wasn’t present. She woke up after a long sleep, called her mother to tell her she loved her, was given breakfast, and dressed in similar clothing to the last time and brought to Hell. Everything was done on autopilot or Avery helped her do it. And she felt nothing the entire time, not even fear.

By the time she’d come back to she was back in front of the double doors that led to the arena. It was like deja vu and she felt close to throwing up as her mind played the reel of what happened the last time. She ended up bent over trying to maintain proper breathing and avoiding a panic attack. It freaked everyone out and she heard Lilith recommend they wait, but she knew that it needed to happen and pledge to get through it that day no matter what.

Once she’d gotten into the right state of mind she took her scimitars from Avery and walked towards the doors where Darien awaited her. He looked at her with a neutral expression and without a hint of contempt wafting off him. She was thankful that he came there to actually do his job.

After a few seconds staring at him she nodded her head and the doors opened up for them. Darien stepped in first and Maia went after him but was stopped right before she could enter.

“Maia!” Lucifer shouted.

She turned to him to see him in the form he took around her mother with a deep-set frown on his face and worry lines in his forehead. He stared at her for a moment before pulling her into a tight hug and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“You got this,” he whispered.

Those words almost set her off again, but she steeled herself and nodded. Lucifer pulled away from her a moment later and without wasting time she walked into the arena and didn’t look back.

When she reached the center she stopped and took in the space. It was the same as last time, but instead of being completely alone she had Darien to back her up if need be. She threw one look his way to keep in mind where he was stationed and when she turned back the first demon had taken its place several feet in front of her.

Like the last time it was the boy who bothered her throughout high school. But unlike the last time she didn’t use her hatred of him or the fact that he was a roadblock fuel her, she used her need to succeed in the task set out for her.

A deep breath later and she was on him. Her sword plunged into his stomach and twisted before she kicked him off. She did the same for the next several that came at her. Her moves were consistent and she focused on what she did along with what they were doing. There was no room for her to miss anything they did, especially when it helped her take them down easier.

By the time Maia reached the halfway point she only had cuts to her clothes, none of them hitting deep enough to mark her skin. That meant she’d done better than before and she used that as another driving force to keep going and do better.

The next half were harder and they came at her in pairs, but she kept up with them. When they came at her she would allow them to get close and then manage to take one down long enough to deal with the other. She’d even started using her hellfire to aid in her take downs. The demons didn’t run away from it, but they reacted as they should have if they were anyone else she attacked with it.

Before she knew it she’d reached where she almost met her end. Matthew came into play, along with her mother and they came at her hard. There was no moment where one of them didn’t swipe at her with their limbs or weapons. Their assault was relentless, but she took a deep breath and navigated it.

After who knows how long of going at it with them she managed to hurt Matthew enough that he stayed down, which meant her focus went to her mother. Part of her said she shouldn’t hurt her, but she snuffed that voice out and charged, a scream leaving her lips as she did.

They clashed; swords pressed against each other as they threw weight around. When they realized neither would win they scrambled back and Maia dropped the scimitar in her left hand. Having them both didn’t help her, so she knew getting rid of the dead weight was best. With her newfound mobility she came at her mother again, but that time with her body and sword aflame. She swung at the demon's head and though it wasn’t enough to get the head off it singed the neck and cut deep. The demon kept going though and soon enough Maia noticed the fact that when they were going left their feet would move right and vice versa. So, when she put some distance between them and they charged at her she watched for it and faked left but instead came up straight. Her blade sailed through the center chest cavity and she held them there.

There was a struggle, but she twisted the blade and then pulled it out before plunging it in there again. The second one did the trick and they went limp. And by the time she pushed them off the blade they’d shifted back to their normal form.

In that moment she knew she wasn’t done because the doors would’ve opened when the “life” left their eyes. So, she turned around to where she’d left the severely injured demon Matthew and walked over to him. He squirmed and moved away from her, but she managed to get to him and drop down onto his stomach, holding him in place.

All she needed to do was drive her sword through his chest, but something made her stop. Her head raised and she looked over at Darien who looked like he was in pain. She knew having him there would have that effect. If it hurt her to have to kill a demon with her mother’s face it had to bother him to watch her do it to a demon who wore his angel brother’s face.

Maia stared at him for a while as she held off on her kill and then when he looked her in the eyes she raised her scimitar and drove it into the demon’s heart. She watched as silent screams broke from his lips and rage filled him.

Slowly she rose happy to be done and prepared for him to come at her once the doors opened, but they didn’t open and that confused her. Until she heard a throat clear behind her and she turned to see both herself and her father standing there.

Of course, new roadblocks had been added since the last time. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was.

After stretching out a little and retrieving the discarded scimitar she moved closer to them. And the moment she was six feet from them they attacked. If she thought that the others were hard, she’d seen nothing. They came at her faster than she could think and the only reason she kept up was because she knew herself well enough to know what would come at every turn.

Lucifer was another story though. With his scythe he was able to reach her farther out and it made it harder for her to avoid him, which led to more cuts across her body.

She thought things were lost when she grew tired and they got more aggressive, but then demon her made a mistake and as she avoided the blade of her father’s scythe she slid on her knees sliced at demon her’s legs and managed to turn in time to shover her blade through the demon’s stomach. There was a loud groan and as she yanked free the demon fell forward and shifted back.

That left only her and demon Lucifer.

He didn’t do anything, just stood there smirking and that’s all that was needed to set her off. They may have reached a point where they could talk and she didn’t hate him, but she hadn’t let it all out. Even when she came at him hard it was never at full force, but that demon wasn’t him and she could do whatever she wanted.

So, despite the rules the first thing she did was blast him in the face with hellfire. It was the strongest she’d ever emitted because she put her all into it and when that distracted him she dropped a scimitar and sprinted forward, slamming the blade just to left of his heart and kept it there as he dropped to his knees. Then she abandoned the blade there. Maia moved behind him and grasped his head in his hand and without a second thought snapped his neck.

When the doors opened she stood there still holding his head. The first thing that Avery, Lilith, Sama’el, the regents, and her father saw was that and then they watched her shove the body to the ground. There were wide eyes all around and she watched her father gulp and shiver. Avery was the only one to smile at her and clap. Though everyone soon followed.

Eventually they found it in them to enter further into the area and Maia didn’t miss how Dairen stormed out the moment they did. It made her feel bad for the poor soul he’d take it out on when he returned to his circle.

“Congratulations Maia! You successfully completed the first part of what you must do, despite a deviation during that last bit. You know what you must do now?” Lilith said while handing her a dagger.

Without a word Maia nodded and took hold of the dagger, then without daring to look she slashed her upper arm.

“I am a child of Hell, the spawn of Lucifer and my goal is to continue the spread of sin no matter how I must do it. I pledge myself to that cause and only it. I give myself over to the fallen,” she said.

Pain coursed through her the moment she finished and stumbled forward but was caught by Avery. He pulled her up into his arms as she barely maintained consciousness and spoke soft soothing words about how well she did. And she couldn’t see it, but Lucifer looked at her with nothing but pride.

“Take her to her room and get her cleaned up. She’ll be out of it for several hours and when she comes too we'll have food and drink ready for her,” Lucifer said.

And just like that Avery whisked her way to her room, though she drifted off before they got there with a feeling of accomplishment coursing through her.


	27. Chapter 27

After one last scan of the answer sheet Maia collected her things and dropped it and the test booklet off at the professor’s desk. She then proceeded to leave the lecture hall as quick as she could, so he didn’t try to ask her questions about why she’d skipped the extra credit or something.

With that final out of the way she was done with them all and free of the stress of school. That thought put some pep in her step as she made her way towards the parking lot. But that free feeling only lasted for a moment before she noticed the weird vibe as she walked through campus. Everything felt empty, which made sense because a lot of finals happened early in the week, but there was a foreboding feeling that came along with it. She could tell something wasn’t right.

Maia tried her best to keep her paranoia at bay, going as far to chalk it up to finally adjusting to life without her brain in constant use. But not even that could get her to shake off the dread that built up, which only got worse as she realized how a good chunk of her class had been missing for the test. People skipped finals or scheduled them for different times, but never that many people.

And after a while she realized that a lot of the people missing were those confirmed as marked for ascension. Something that couldn't have been a coincidence.

It wasn’t something she could ignore, so she found the nearest dark corner and allowed the shadows to consume her. When she emerged it was in the warehouse meeting room where they seemed to be in the middle of something.

“...if need be we’ll have extra security so they can come in to help stir the pot a little more. I wish it were easy, but these two gangs are too wimpy to actually start anything themselves,” Seth said.

“We've had people scoping out the targets for days now and nothing has changed. Everyone should be where we need them to be to pull this off, and it should be the last push we need to really get them fighting. A few petty retaliations just won't do, so we have to get this going people. It’s important, so very important, that this gets done the right way and we really stick it to them. We got this people!” Zion, a squad leader, gave such an enthusiastic speech but was met with silence that left him looking dejected.

Lilith laughed, but quickly covered it with a throat clearing. She nodded her head along, looking as if she strongly agreed. “Like Zion said, this needs to be a big push. No more playing around, we need this war. Now go out there and get it done.”

With a wave of her hand every filed out, giving Maia brief nods as they went. She too planned to leave, but Lilith pinned her with a look and she remained in place. It wasn’t until everyone, even Seth and Avery left that she spoke.

“You’re late.” Her eyes narrowed as she moved closer to me. “Which I assume, because of the book bag, is because you had a final to take today. Does that mean you're done for the semester? Did you pass all of your classes? Are you free to enjoy the world and do great things?”

Her reaction was so over the top that Maia couldn’t help but laugh. It was similar to how her mother reacted every time she accomplished something and it made Maia a little proud of herself. The fact that she felt happiness without lingering malice told her that she’d completely forgiven her. Or at the very least she didn’t feel the need to think about how wronged she felt all the time. Progress.

“Yes, I am. No celebrations or freedom just yet though, I still have one last semester left. Plus, I may extend my college years. No celebrations of temporary freedom either, at least until I can get a breather from all that’s going on here too,” she said.

Maia’s team waited for her out back and a cloud of tension hovered over them. The death of a second regent put everyone on edge, which kept them more alert but also made them much more nervous. Even Maia was affected by it and it furthered the growing unease that made anything out of place appear like some sort of part of an angel plot.

After a survey of the group she nodded to Seth, a signal to move out. With a snap of his fingers everyone stepped into the shadows. The moment Maia stepped out onto my perch up high on some house a wave of nausea hit her hard, but despite her trained eye searching the area she couldn’t find one angel. Something was wrong and she refused to stick around to figure out what.

Without a second thought she yelled into comms. “Retreat! Go back and don’t move until you're told otherwise.”

For a moment no one moved, but after she shouted it again they all disappeared back into the shadows and to the safe house. Maia took a different route though, locking onto the energy her father exuded so that when she emerged in Hell it was right in front of him.

At first a smile graced his lips, something that became more frequent once they’d hashed everything out. But the moment he truly took in her expression it dropped and was replaced by a worried frown.

“Something is going on up there. We went to the mission location, but everything felt off the moment we arrived. It was like a strong uncomfortable feeling when a squad of angels are about to rain down on you, but there were none in sight. And it’s been too quiet. There and everywhere else. I made everyone draw back,” she said.

That made the frown deepen as he turned on his heel and walked down the hall. “Are the others here?”

Maia’s legs were long, but she had to jog to keep up. “I'm not sure, they should be. Seth must have let them know since I sent him back so suddenly.”

Sure enough when they entered the meeting room Avery, Lilith, and Sama’el were standing around the table with confused expressions. They relaxed when they noticed them, but there was still a lot of uncertainty and tension in the room.

“What happened, Maia? You don’t scare easy,” Lilith asked.

For a moment Maia worried her paranoia got to her, but that feeling left as quick as it came. She shook her head and sighed. “Things have been weird lately. First Matthew being the one sent to watch over Issac at the birthday party, when that is in no way his job. Then today has been filled with oddities. First my campus is half empty, around finals no less. And a lot of the people missing are confirmed marked. So that plus a mission with a creepy vacant feeling doesn’t bode well with me. It felt like a set-up for slaughter and I thought best we do not risk it.”

Avery started pacing for a moment and then stopped on a dime. He whipped around to stare Maia down. “I got that feeling too, but it was in an abnormal patrol area a few days ago. It lasted maybe a second and then someone stumbled out from somewhere and broke the feeling.”

All eyes moved to Lucifer after that, everyone tried to gauge what he thought. He didn’t look at any of them though, his gaze was on the ground and his eyebrows were furrowed. The tension in the room grew as everyone waited for something to be said or done.

At some point it became too much for Maia.

“Dad?” she called out.

In an instant his head shot up and the look on his face sent Maia stumbling back. Flames swirled amongst darkness in his eyes and though there was no distinct frown it was clear that he was not pleased at all. It was much more intense than anything she’d ever seen on him.

“He's up to something. Get our watchers out there and have them keep vigilant. Something feels wrong then they leave and report directly here. No go betweens. No one goes out and about, everyone stays confined,” He paused to run a hand over his face and then turned to Sama’el. “Come with me.”

No one said a word after that, everyone just ran to do what needed to be done. Maia went to several safe houses to let them know to be on alert and directed the much newer fallen to go to Hell and stay there. By the time she returned Avery stood in the meeting room twirling his staff and looking prepared to fight.

Not wanting to startle him Maia approached him slowly and placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. He stopped what he was doing to smile at her, but it was forced.

Of course, she forced one of her own, though she knew that it probably looked more sad than anything. “The odds of this being it?”

“Let’s hope that this is not that kind of situation. If it is then I’m sticking to you more than I was before. You can hold your own, but you’re a high value target. My pledge is to this cause, but you are one of my priorities.” A real smile graced his lips for a moment. “And I can do it under the guise of merely protecting the heir.”

The sweetness of his words didn’t outweigh the uneasiness that Maia knew they both felt, but it helped a little. So much that she could conjure up some faux agitation about needing a guard despite knowing how right he was. They’d slaughter everyone and she could handle it, but if too many came at her at once she wasn’t so sure.

Heavy boots hitting the ground broke their little moment and when Maia turned her head she was met with a frowning Lilith. She’d changed into more combat friendly attire, but to the surprise of no one it was still all white. Her eyes had blackened and she carried her white gold battle axe in her hand. Which shattered any hope that Maia felt before. Lilith didn’t fight unless she had to, which was rare.

“So, this is really happ-” Before Maia could finish the room shook violently, accompanied by a loud knocking sound. Maia’s eyes widened as the intensity sent her sliding sideways and she struggled to find something to grip on to.

For a minute or two the “earthquake” went on, it’s strength and knocking growing with every second that ticked by. Things flew off walls and toppled over, but it wasn’t until the last shake that she heard what sounded like thunder and then silence. Everything stopped, but the sounds of things crashing persisted for a moment or so after.

She was perplexed.

Lucifer entered the room as the three of them regained their bearings. If Maia thought he looked enraged before, she hadn’t seen anything until that exact moment. But that time the anger was accompanied by a smile. One that was too wide and giddy for whatever happened moments before. It was the scariest she’d ever seen anyone.

“That’s only happened once before, and since I didn’t do it and Maia doesn’t know how that leaves only one person. Looks like you were right, Mai. He wants to play. That was a call to war and it would be rude to turn Him down. Wouldn’t it?”

###

Reports poured in about bright lights flashing and increased angel activity in a ghost town several cities away. When the fallen sent to check it out came back they struggled to tell them about the army of angels who stood in wait. The fear made sense, no one saw any of it coming. It was almost out of nowhere and that meant they weren’t fully prepared for it. It was a possibility they trained for, but training for a hypothetical and having time to mentally prepare for it being real were vastly different things.

In the midst of the chaos Maia changed into more combat ready clothing. Nothing would truly stop damage coming her way, so comfort was the main requirement. Comfort and not caring about it being stained with blood or being torn.

As things died down she excused herself to a quiet area and made a phone call. “Hi, mama.”

“Hey, sweetie. You finish your finals today?” She answered, sounding chipper. In the background the clanging of pots could be heard.

“Yeah. I was just calling to talk to you real quick. Remind you that I'll be a bit M.I.A for the next few weeks with that trip with Avery. I obviously will call you as much as I can though.” Maia’s throat dried up at those last words as she felt fear creep in.

It took a lot for her to not cry or give indication that something was wrong, but she managed. Worrying her mother before a battle situation was different than worrying her when she got sick. There was always a chance she’d not come back but saying that was out of the question. Even as a tear slipped at the thought of someone having to inform her that she was severely injured or sick.

“I know. I wish you could stop by, but I know when you find cheap tickets to a place you have time to visit sometimes you have to jump on it.” Her words were encouraging, but there was a tinge of sadness in them.

That almost broke Maia.

“Okay. Well, I need to finish some things up before we head out. I'll call you later,” her voice broke a little but she pushed through. “I love you, mommy.”

“I love you too, baby. Later.” With those parting words they hung up and Maia let the tears fall.

Footsteps alerted her that she wasn’t alone, so she tried to wipe them all away only to see it was her father. Lucifer was changed and twirled a metal bar in his hand, his expression sympathetic. He’d clearly heard the entire conversation but had the decency not to bring it up.

“We're heading out now. Don't want to waste another minute,” he said, voice gentle

After a few deep breaths Maia regained her composure and nodded. She collected my scimitars from the shadows and swung them around a bit, working out that last influx of nerves. The ease if it calmed her further and she moved past him but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him with a raised brow.

“Something up?” she asked.

Lucifer stared deep into her eyes, as if trying to read her soul. “I just… I just need you to run if I tell you to run. Don’t ask questions and don’t look back. You go and you get as far from me as possible. Understood?”

Of course, that made her want to ask questions, but something in the way he said it made it clear he wouldn’t answer them and just needed her to listen. Once she’d stopped herself she nodded in agreement and watched him visibly relax. And with one last smile he released her and Maia moved through the shadows.

When Maia stepped free of the shadows she was on the front line of it all and beyond shocked at what lay in front of her. Thousands of angels were lined up and at the ready. They all appeared eager with the way they held their weapons and their eyes flickered to their leaders. Though that didn’t mean there wasn’t fear radiating from them.

Once she was done taking in the others she focused on those directly in front of her. A collection of her uncles stood in front of her, all of them scowling at her. They weren’t fond of her at all, well not including Michael who thought she was still savable. He was clearly pissed at her, but it was like his heart wasn’t in it.

“Where is he?” Gabriel, the grumpiest of the bunch, asked.

“Five, four, three, two…” Maia pointed to the spot next to her just as he appeared.

If Gabriel and Uriel were angry before, they reached next level upon his appearance. And for the first time since Maia showed up Michael appeared as angry as his brother, which indicated how bad the whole thing would truly get.

“You could've made this so much easier for yourself Lucifer. I don't understand why you devote your life to this and for so long. You should've just come home and took the punishment,” Michael said.

Lucifer’s immediate reaction was to laugh. A deep laugh, one that came from the depths of your stomach when you found something beyond hilarious. The laugh stopped as quickly as it came though.

“Don't pretend that your Father is as forgiving as you say He is. We both know His true colors.”

“No. He has always been the righteous creator we needed. Just because you failed to assimilate back into our…” Michael was so close to finishing, but Lucifer’s uppercut shut him up.

Gabriel moved like a blur towards Lucifer, but Maia moved faster. She intercepted him and kicked out her leg so that it slammed into his stomach, it sent him stumbling back. And before he could regain his bearings she came at him again, swords at the ready.

“Not to-fucking-day.”

That was all it took for the battle to begin. Battle cries rang out and both sides charged forward, eager to do some damage. A symphony of chaos that fueled every cell in Maia’s body.

Gabriel regained his footing but jogged backwards to create some distance. When he thought Maia wasn’t paying attention he faked left, but she reacted quickly and followed his movements when he came right. His short sword barely missed her and she could see in his eyes that it pissed him off.

The next time he ran at her, sword raised high and swung down. Maia crossed her swords in an x-shape and pushed up with enough force to send him stumbling again. Then it was her turn to come at him. She shuffled forward, keeping track of the way his body moved and just as he was stable she sliced at his side. Watching the pain on his face for that brief moment sparked joy.

Gabriel immediately went left and she went right, able to meet him head on before he got a single hit in. It made him angrier and that made his movements sloppy. Despite so many years of training he’d allowed his niece who’d been around for not even a fraction of the time throw him off his game. Which wasn’t surprising because Lucifer always said of all of them Gabriel’s temper was the first to get the best of him. She’d been trained the most on how to fight those like him and she finally saw it come in handy.

He grew tired of Maia’s shit though and tackled her to the ground, giving her barely any time to block his elbow to the face. She tried to knee him, but his legs straddled hers tight enough that doing so was next to impossible, but she managed to get free and slam her knee into his crotch twice. The pain from it was evident on his face, but he refused to let up. Even when Maia managed to reposition her arm and scimitar to slam into his face and leave a cut he didn’t move. Maia was about to release her fire in the next hit, but then he was dragged off her. Lilith, whose white clothing was splattered with blood, had the archangel by his ankle and dragged him across the ground as if it were nothing.

Sadly, Maia didn’t get to enjoy that show though. The moment Gabriel was no longer on her another angel took it as the okay to breach the invisible boundary that had been there as they fought. Maia was on her feet for two seconds before a dagger was swung at her face. She’d barely seen it coming, but the angel didn’t account for her wobbling to the side and that prevented Maia from getting a nasty scar.

It was a younger, too eager angel who'd come at her which was clear by the way they failed to back away quick enough, probably banking on their blade connecting. But because of that she was able to swing the scimitar in my right hand out and make contact with their torso. The scream that left their lips was loud and whiny, but that didn’t stop them from trying to retaliate. They swung their dagger out blindly and Maia allowed them a few swipes before moving in and slamming both her blades into their stomach. Their dagger clattered to the ground as life left their eyes. They seemed so at peace, but that was probably because they assumed they’d ascend again and never would’ve guessed that her blades were coated in a poison that stained the souls of regular angels.

Maia hoped they enjoyed their stay in Hell.

As Maia’s sword pulled free of the angel's body another flew at her. She assumed there had to be a group discussion on coming at her just as she finished with someone else. And they had to specify one at a time or she would’ve had several coming at her at once. Something that would have been a better tactic for them.

The angel jabbed her spear at Maia with precision and she managed to evade it, though it almost cost her head. Lucifer fought Michael and Uriel not too far from Maia and had swung his scythe out wide just as Maia entered his space. He managed to throw a small nod of apology, before getting back to his brothers.

Annoyed Maia stopped evading and whipped around just as the tip of the angel’s spear hit her shoulder. She winced in pain but ignored it. She dropped one of her scimitars for a moment and gripped the blade that dug into her shoulder. The pain and blood flowing from her had was intense, but she held strong. Slowly she pulled the angel closer and before she could notice what was happening Maia drove the other scimitar into her chest. There was a gasp for air and then nothing.

There was no time to worry about making sure she was down for the count though because another angel swooped down and fired arrows at Maia. One lodged itself into her shoulder, inches from where the spear hit, and it pissed her off.

"You little shit!"

With a smirk on her face, the angel flew a few feet higher, avoiding any immediate reaction from Maia. She queued up another arrow, but Maia sidestepped before she released. Taking a few rapid steps backward Maia readjusted the hold on her scimitar, allowed her flame to overtake the weapon and launched it like a javelin. Naturally, the angel moved, but Maia created a shadow in front of the sword and behind her back. It sailed through her without a problem. Before she could hit the ground Maia used the same method to retrieve it.

After grabbing the sword she’d discarded before she sprinted through the masses. She went for any angel in her path and took many of them by surprise, they never had the chance to fight back. It was like all the fear she’d had before dissipated and all she felt was glee. Being in the midst of battle fueled her, all kinds of sin happened around her. But that only lasted for so long. After she’d mowed down several angels it lost its spark because she knew more had come at her, but the fallen detail that was placed on her had kept them at bay. She didn’t want to be near death with seven fallen trying to take her out, but more than two at a time would’ve been nice.

However, she pushed that aside and kept going. By the time she truly began to feel tired the sun had set and the battlefield had cleared quite a bit. Many laid on the ground dead, barely alive, or in ashes. It had her worried, but she noticed that more fallen were left than anyone else and that meant they were winning and the end was near. Or at least that’s what she hoped.

But that hope didn’t last long.

The sky went from dark to an unnatural color that filled her with unease. That wasn’t the end of it though. Wind kicked up and the temperature dropped a great deal. Everyone stopped what they were doing as their gaze shifted heavenward fear clearly etched on their faces.

Maia’s gaze shifted to her father, who’d unfurled his wings and hovered several feet above ground not too far from her. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape, she could sense the fear from him which only terrified her. But she didn’t have time to address that feeling because soon enough every angel shot off into the air in the opposite direction of him. Fallen followed suit, taking flight, or using the shadows to get away.

Avery shouted for her to run, but Maia couldn’t move. She felt stuck in place and before he could try to get to her Lilith dragged him away into the shadows.

Lucifer looked Maia’s way and she saw the dread in his eyes, she’d never seen him so afraid. And she knew that meant she needed to leave, but she couldn’t make herself move. Even as he shouted for her to go she couldn’t muster the energy to at least allow the shadows to consume her until it was too late.

The sky parted and thunder rumbled loudly, Maia’s eyes moved to the sky again and then she realized what was coming. There was no reason for her to even try to escape. No one could escape His wrath.

Maia’s last sight was her father’s wings and his face frozen in pain that had to mirror the way she felt it. Electricity flowed through her and she felt one last breath of air escape her before everything went dark.


	28. Chapter 28

Pressure on Maia’s shoulder sent a surge of pain through her body and pulled her back to reality. Her eyes fluttered open, vision blurred and discomfort seemingly never ending. Once things became clear and the pain dulled she forced herself to sit up and fought the urge to drift off again. When she finally found the energy to turn her head and see the cause of the flare up she was met with a sheepish Yoongi.

“My bad. You weren’t waking up and I was trying to be gentle.”

Maia sighed and flopped back down, sending another series of sharp pains throughout her body. She grabbed the pillow next to her and shoved it into her face, nearly suffocating, and released a frustrated scream. Once done she left it on her face and tried to calm down, because she was beyond close to a small breakdown. The thought of having to leave the bed was that horrible. All she wanted to do was enjoy her vacation in Italy a little longer.

“Maia?” Yoongi called out.

When she finally tossed the pillow to the side she could see the frown and worry etched into his face. Forcing a smile she sat up and took hold of his hand. “I’m fine. I just really don’t want to leave right now. It’s too wonderful.”

In an instant his frown shifted into a smile. He squeezed her hand and carefully helped her out of the bed. “I know, but we’ll be quick. This shouldn’t take any more than an hour or two.”

Leaning forward he pressed a kiss to Maia’s forehead and then her lips. A small sense of peace swept through her and remained even when he pulled away. For a moment they stayed like that, just standing close and staring at each other.

“We should go,” he said.

Nodding she freed herself of him and limped over to her slippers. The outfit she wore consisted of a crop top, flannel, and cotton shorts, which she refused to change out of. It was a last-minute meeting during a vacation she desperately needed and she held no desire to impress anyone. If they had something to say she couldn’t care less.

Once ready Yoongi grasped her hand and led her through the shadows and into the foyer of her second home. The castle was quiet, as usual, but with demons and fallen walking about it was livelier than it had been weeks before. As they traversed the halls they passed by a few people and gave short greetings, no one wanting to linger long.

With each step she wished that they’d just appeared in the meeting room because her body was on fire. The ache grew with every movement and she fought the urge to just go back to their villa or use the shadows to get there quicker. She knew that Yoongi put them there to force her to walk and help with the discomfort, but no one said she had to like it. When it felt like it became too much to fight through she wrapped his arm around her waist, leaning in close. Thankfully, he understood and handled some of her weight, which lessened the pain.

By the time they’d reached the hall of the meeting room Maia regained enough energy to pull away a bit. The pain wasn’t as intense and she didn’t feel on the verge of passing out.

Progress.

“Hold some of your own weight here, Maia.” He glanced down at her, a smirk on his face.

She rolled her eyes and used the hand of his waist to pinch him hard. “I’m holding most of my weight, asshole.”

He groaned out in pain, but that stupid smirked remained firm. She paid the idiot no mind and pushed him off, walking faster towards the double doors. Before she could push into the room he overtook her and did it himself. Once inside they were met with everyone already seated and speaking amongst themselves. The regents paid them no mind, but Lilith, Sama’el, and Lucifer glanced their way. All three of them smiled, though it terrified her. In all her time knowing Sama’el she’d never even seen him smirk, but there the demon was with a genuine, teeth showing smile.

Yoongi escorted her to her seat since she’d frozen in shock, but by the time her butt was firmly planted she’d pulled it together. Turning to her father she meant to speak, but her eyes zoned in on the scar that started at his hairline and disappeared down his shirt. Right where the lightning struck him when he’d moved to cover her. It matched the mark he already had on his side from centuries before she was born. A mark that she too had running down her right side.

The mark of those who were smited. Those who’d somehow survived His wrath.

“So, we're having our first meeting in weeks. I must admit it's nice to be sitting here and not shattered into a trillion pieces.” Lucifer laughed at his own joke and even though no one else did he wasn’t the least bit fazed.

Collecting himself he cleared his throat and continued. “I know we'd all love a bit more of a vacation for recovery, but we need to get back on it. Things have slowed down considerably since the incident and I want us back to the pace we were at before.”

Everyone nodded or murmured in agreement, but there were a few eye rolls too. They enjoyed not having their boss breathing down their necks because they could get away with doing things the way they wanted. In all honesty the only thing that kept them in check was fear, especially after the battle. No one wanted to challenge a being who’d thwarted death two times.

Lucifer’s excitement dulled and though his smile remained it was more thoughtful. “But first, I'd like to extend my appreciation to the regents and Lilith, who took care of everything in my absence. You all handled things well and kept us running while Maia and I were incapacitated. Your dedication to our mission is admirable and noted.”

A few people started feeling themselves once he said that. It seemed that even if they secretly harbored some ill will towards him they still liked to hear approval. No matter your age or station praise wasn’t something you were above enjoying and sometimes it was the only way to feel validated.

“Lilith has kept me up to date on everything that's happened, so there is no need for separate updates this meeting. Next meeting I do want you prepared to tell me anything and everything that's happening. I cannot stress enough the importance of treating things with the understanding that they may be important to what we're trying to do here. I don't care if you think it's insignificant, if it strikes you as odd you report it.” He leveled a glare on the entire table, but he focused more on the seventh and eighth circle regents.

“And if you so much as think about heading up to the surface without permission to do so I will let Maia dish out whatever punishment she sees fit.”

After that they all glance Maia’s way, so she smiled and winked at them. They did not appear pleased with the thought of that, which meant that they would listen for a while.

“Got that?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“Good. You are to set an example for all fallen to follow. Especially the newer regents when we get them fully assimilated down here. I will ensure they get a hang of the ropes, but it is your job to make sure they do their jobs to the standard I expect from all of you. Failure from them will reflect as failure from you as well. We do not fail.” Lucifer’s speech roused them and caused a shift in the atmosphere. Even Maia felt a little motivated by his words.

“Also, don't be afraid to tell me when you think I'm making a wrong move. Regardless of my position I don't know all the plays and I may think something is right and it isn't. This is a team effort and all input is needed, even if I don't act like it is.”

Hearing him say that made her happy, especially since he glanced her way as he said it. He tried to make things up to her in his own way. His apology wasn’t enough for him and that made her appreciative, because even if she’d forgiven him he needed to actively show her he would be better and do better.

A fallen broke the momentary silence by swinging the doors open wide. He scurried in, bowed to Lucifer, placed a sheet of paper in front of him and left just as quick. Brow raised Maia lean in to see what it was, but she only read the word marked before her father snatched it up. He scanned the list and then froze, his eyes stared at one solitary spot.

When seconds passed and he remained that way she got curious. “Something wrong?”

Her voice snapped him out of the trance and he stared at her for a moment. Just as she went to take the list though he moved it out of reach and extended his arm past Maia to hand it to Lilith. Frowning, her gaze switched to her and she wore the same blank expression he did. For a moment she too stayed like that and then looked at him, both seemingly sharing a private conversation.

Clearing her throat Maia looked at her expectantly.

“Uh, it's nothing. Just a surprising number of people on this list. Odd, how many people they're marking these days.” She laughed after, which told Maia she was lying. Lilith was wonderful at lying, but she tended to often fail when it came to Maia. Nervous laughter was her tell.

Without a word Maia rose from her seat and snatched the paper before she could stop her. Lilith and Lucifer got up as well and tried to regain control of the paper, but she swatted them away with her free hand and moved away from the table to keep them at a distance.

Lilith wasn’t wrong, there were a surprising number of people on the list. They never marked that many in such a short time, but it was nothing to be worried about. It wasn’t until she reached near the end of the list that her heart dropped and an audible gasp left her.

Anise Fell.

Her mother’s name was there. Devastated didn't even begin to cover what flowed through her as she dropped the paper and tears ran down her face.

All she could repeat was that it couldn’t be happening. That He couldn’t possibly be doing that to her. It was the rationale she used to deceive herself and the last thought before she was overcome with emotion, her eyes rolled back into her head and her knees buckled.


End file.
